Of Horns and Hair
by AnchoAshido
Summary: How would the story change if Kirishima, Ashido and Midoriya were the prime focus as a trio? See them as they help each other through their problems, Kirishima battles his own self-esteem issues, and Izuku becomes surprisingly adept with One For All. Canon divergent fic, Ot3.
1. Chapter 1

The sun shone through the blinds of Mina's room, hitting her eyes just right. The pinkette had spent all night watching sci-fi movies, under the pretense of 'I can wake up before 8 am, no worries'.

The rays of light made her groggily wake up, slowly sitting up and yawning, running her fingers through her now tangled up hair. She looked around, still half asleep, before jumping up as soon as she saw how weirdly bright everything was outside, for what she assumed was 7 AM. She looked at her digital clock on the side of her bed.

It was 8:30 AM. Her eyes widened as soon as she realized what time it was. She had to be at the exam site at 9 AM sharp. Panicking and falling out of her bed, she quickly put on her middle school clothes, packed some gym clothes and ran downstairs.

"I see you're up-" Miss Ashido was cut off as Mina grabbed the food set on the table and quickly ran off to the front door, "Hey hey, don't be so rude!"

"Sorry! I'm really late! I'll make up for it later!" Mina exclaimed as she ran out the door, stuffing her face. It wasn't until she got to her train that she was actually able to relax. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself mentally for her big day.

"This is it… You're gonna go there, and you're gonna kick butt Mina! Yeah!" Hyping herself up in her mind, she exited her train and ran for U.A, arriving right on time to see some green haired boy make the most embarrassing fall of his life by tripping over himself.

Running up to him, she extended her hand to him, "Hey, you alright?" A small awkward silence formed before he finally grabbed her hand and pulled himself up. "I'll take that as a yes… But say, you're here for the exams, right?" From his build, and what little personality she'd gotten from him, she could only assume he was applying for General Studies, "That's really bad luck, to just fall down like that, hehe!" She said teasingly, patting his shoulder.

"I kid, I kid." She waited for a response, but all she got was a flustered look from him and silence, "Not much of a talker? That's fine. Good luck passing the general studies course!"

Mina entered the building and sat in her assigned spot, right next to a black haired boy. "Hey… you look familiar… are you from Batuu middle school?" He simply nodded. Mina tilted her head, "Do I know ya?" The boy didn't answer this time, instead choosing to inspect his paper.

"Jeez, what's with everyone today? Do I have something on my shirt or something?" Mina examined her outfit, looking for any signs of something unusual, not finding anything. She huffed as she fiddled with her ID, kinda listening to the presentation. It was pretty common stuff really, nothing she wasn't expecting.

What she wasn't expecting was mr.I-Robot to start shouting so loudly that he almost rivalled Mic's volume. Not only that, but he even called out some green haired kid for mumbling so much. Mina hadn't even noticed it, so she didn't see why- Oh.

"That's the kid who fell at the gates… Huh, guess I wasn't far off when I said it was bad luck, eh." She thought to herself, smiling slightly. She had to admire the kid's determination to at least participate, even if he didn't look like much.

Finishing the introductions, she got up with a stretch, patting the kid next to her on the back, "Well ! See ya around, good luck!" She left to change into her gym clothes, confident that she would get at least top ten in the exam.

* * *

Eijirou dashed through the exam robots, his black medium-length hair flowing through the wind as he crushed the machines he encountered. He would like to say that this was a normal thing for him, but truth be told, he was in absolute euphoria, dashing with so much confidence, tearing through his objectives, he almost certainly was going to place high.

He was snapped out of it as he saw some green haired kid cowering in fear from the exam robot. "What- What is he doing?! He needs to run or destroy it!" He thought in his mind, before he realized what scenario this was.

This was almost the exact same thing that had happened with the giant villain a few months back. Except this time, there was no Mina to save the day. No Heroes. This was an exam, people are competing against each other, so why would they help some kid who is going to fail anyway, right?

Before he could think too hard on it, Eijirou rushed in. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, but he forced his body to move. He had to move. What kind of hero would he be if he didn't save someone in need?

Leaping into the air, he crushed the robot's arm in half, landing right in front of the kid, before spinning around and finishing it off by decapitating it. "Huff… Huff… You alright?" He asked as he pulled the green haired kid to his feet.

"Y-yeah, I'm fin-

Before he could answer, Mic announced that there were few minutes left, "Crap! Catch you later, I have to keep going!" Eijirou exclaimed as he searched for more robots. He'd lost time saving the kid for sure, but he felt… proud of himself. He wouldn't have been able to do that months back. Maybe he was finally different from his old self.

As the timer began to run low and the giant robot rose from the ground, he ran away like any sensible person would. "Do they seriously expect us to fight something like that?!" He screamed as he ran as fast as he could.

He stopped as soon as he heard the sound of metal crunching and breaking apart. Turning to look at the Zero Pointer, he saw a scrawny, green haired kid had completely wrecked it's head. It took him a moment to notice, but that was the same guy he'd saved just minutes ago.

"Jeez… if your quirk's that strong, use it earlier, will you…" He said to himself as he ran to find some last robots, "Well, at least I was able to save someone who destroyed the robot, that's a bonus! Yeah! I did something good!"

* * *

Mina grumbled to herself as she poked her food. She wasn't feeling particularly hungry that evening, not at all. "Stupid blond jerk… stole my points…"

"Is everything alright, princess?" Asked Kakusuke Ashido entering the room, his average height but bulkier build easily intimidating anyone who didn't know him, only being accentuated by his deep red eyes. The only thing that decreased that intimidation factor was his pinkish red skin and hair, alongside his manner of speech.

"Nothing… Just, ugh, some blond kid stole most of my points in the exam!" She sighed dramatically, slurping her soba slowly.

"Well, do you think you passed either way?"

"I mean, probably? I did get a decent amount of points, I just kinda plateau'd after that jerk destroyed most of the targets!"

"Well," Kakusuke ruffled his daughter's hair, "Then it ain't all bad is it?"

Mina smiled softly, "Guess not." Despite his rather intimidating build, Kakusuke was a kind, soft man. For someone with a quirk like "Toxin", he was the polar opposite of what it would imply.

"Now c'mon, your sister wants to know what you want her to get from the store." He said, walking away from the room.

/

Eijirou took a deep breath as he saw Mina in the 1-A classroom. "Just breathe Eijirou… she's not some kind of angel, she's just another student… just greet her." He muttered to himself before entering the classroom.

"Yo! Are you from Batuu?" He exclaimed to her as he approached her.

"Yeah…? Do I know you?"

Eijirou remembered how she saw him before his look was changed and lied, "Not really, just thought you looked familiar. Name's Kirishima Eijirou!"

"Oh! Ashido Mina! It's kinda nice to know someone else from my school got in! I was kinda worried at first, that I wouldn't know anyone, but I guess this is a first step!"

"Heh, guess so!"

A green haired boy interrupted their conversation, "E-Excuse me? I-I'm Midoriya Izuku, you helped me back up a-at the entrance when we took the e-exam!" He had a shy smile on his face and a blush was covering his face. "Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, so you passed? That's great! Mr.'I couldn't say a word to the girl who helped me up' " Mina couldn't help but giggle at the boys demeanor as she teased him, it was honestly endearing and a bit cute, that is until Eijirou butted into the conversation.

"Dude! You're the guy who destroyed the zero pointer, aren't you?!" Eijirou asked enthusiastically, which prompted a shocked reaction from Mina.

"Wait, what! You destroyed that huge thing? That's awesome!" She was getting closer and closer to Izuku's face, which only deepened his blush.

"I-it was nothing… hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" Izuku said, looking at Eijirou.

"Uh… Oh, right! I helped you not get your butt kicked back at the exam! Good thing too, since you ended up taking care of the giant robot! Kirishima Eijirou!"

"And I'm Ashido Mina, but I think you might have caught that while coming over."

"Yeah! But… Kirishima?"

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't your hair-" Izuku was immediately stopped by Eijirou's hand covering his mouth, making a low 'shhh' sound.

"Let's…. not talk about that, okay?" Izuku nodded, "Great!" He was quickly interrupted by their homeroom teacher, who wanted them to get into their gym uniforms and go outside for some sort of activity.

* * *

The quirk apprehension test was nothing short of tiring. Various tests had to be done by each student to judge their potential, similarly to a P.E test, except they'd be able to use their quirks. Eijirou and Mina were doing well in different areas, Izuku… not so much. He hadn't used his quirk thus far, despite it being extremely strong according to the red haired boy.

Mina expected him to fail completely, even the ball pitch test, which was relatively easy for anyone. "You sure he's the guy who destroyed the 0 pointer?" Eijirou just nodded as Mina crossed her arms. She was sure he'd gotten someone else, and Izuku was just faking it, until…

The ball flew forward several hundred meters in the air, easily passing 700 M. Mina stood there, mouth gaping. "Wha- How…"

She watched as he went to his other classmates, Iida and Uraraka, who were very clearly worried for him. She noticed how he clutched his finger. Maybe his quirk wasn't something he could use as easily as others?

"Yeah, he doesn't look like much but he's a power house! Yo, Midoriya! Come here!" Izuku waved to Uraraka and Iida as he went over to the other duo. "Dude, what was up with that? Why didn't you use your quirk in the other tests?"

"W-well…" Izuku raised his hand and showed them his finger. It was swollen and broken, the skin having gone purple and wounded. "This… happens."

"What the heck?! Are you okay dude?" Mina stared at the wounded hand in disbelief. She knew some quirks had physical drawbacks, but this was something else entirely, for something to break the user...

"Yeah, you, uh, really got messed up huh." Eijirou added scratching the back of his head, wincing as he looked at the wounded finger.

"I-it's nothing really! I swear!"

The rest of the tests went on as normal, with Izuku performing poorly due to the pain. Mina and Eijirou both taking pity in him, the amount of pain he must have been in was quite possibly unbearable, and it was evident by his scrunched up face. In the end, everything worked out, but he was still in quite a lot of discomfort.

Eijirou tried approaching him, but Iida quickly rushed over to Izuku, "Midoriya! Allow me to assist you to the nurse's office! As a Hero Student, it is my duty to assist someone injured!" Eijirou simply smiled as Izuku was almost carried to the office. Maybe later.

The end of the school day arrived, Izuku was walking home with Uraraka and Iida by his side, all of them chatting while they walked. Mina and Eijirou both ran towards the group and butted in. "Hey Midoriya! You feeling better?" Eijirou asked him, morbid curiosity in his voice.

"Y-yeah, I am." Mina quickly grabbed his hand and looked at it. "Wh-what are you doing?!" He struggled to form words, barely forming a sentence, his whole body just frozen in place from the sudden contact, the only thing making it worse was the fact that it was a girl who was touching him.

"Just checking dude, relax! How did this get healed so quickly?" Mina stared at his bandaged finger, slowly turning his hand around, when Iida intervened.

"I know you are worried for him, but please refrain from moving his hand so much, Ashido! Recovery Girl has healed his wounds, but it is best for him to not make sudden movements!" Iida chopped at the air in frustration, his motions almost robot like.

Mina let his hand go, Izuku's face once again glowing bright red. "Alright alright, no need to tell me twice. Anyway, I gotta go, I have to go take my train home!" She quickly ran to catch her train, leaving the others behind.

"O-okay, bye Ashido!"

* * *

Izuku let out a deep sigh as he walked to his train station, what had he gotten himself into? He'd met two girls and both of them seemed to like his presence… needless to say, that was an alien concept to him, so much so that whenever either even came close to him, he'd blush bright red. "Calm down… they just want to be friends, that's all…" That word, "friends", it made his throat tighten. Izuku technically had a friend back in childhood, but he quickly became his bully. His walk slowed down as he thought of that, his shoulders slumping. At least he had people he could call friends now, right?

As he arrived to the train station, he spotted the pink haired girl herself, Mina. He froze for a moment, thinking of what to do. Should he greet her? That might come off as creepy somehow... Should he just ignore her? No, that'd be rude… He took a deep breath and walked towards her, his best option was the former.

"H-hey A-Ashido!" Izuku said to her as he walked closer, hoping to not come across weirdly, but most of his body was rigid.

"Oh, Midoriya! Hey! You take this train home too?" She asked him, enthusiasm in her voice.

"Ye-yeah, I live in Shizuoka." He stopped for a moment, trying to recompose himself, a task that proved to be incredibly difficult for him when near a girl, especially a girl of his age.

"Ah, cool! Your stop's only a few stops after mine!" Mina rocked from side to side, smiling. "Nice to see you share a ride home with me, Midoriya!" Izuku gained a small blush from the comment, but they were just friends, no reason to feel like that, right?

They both entered the train and sat down next to each other. Izuku had tried to keep some distance from her, but with how crowded it was, it was either sit right beside her, or a total stranger. Frankly, he wasn't a fan of either option, but if he had to sit next to someone, then at least it'd be someone he knows. Their shoulders nearly touching and Izuku's blush deepening, how close they were managed to make even the girl blush slightly, but Mina finally broke the ice as they rode the train, "So, what was that all about?"

"H-huh?" Izuku was puzzled at the sudden question, not quite sure what to make of it at all.

"That Bakugo guy calling you "Deku", are you two friends or something?" Mina's eyebrows lifted up slightly, she was curious on what exactly was going on between the two.

"You… could say that." Izuku answered nervously, he didn't want to lie, but he also didn't want to harm Bakugo's image.

"Well, he's not very nice if he calls you Deku, is he now?" Mina put a finger to her chin, thinking. "I know a nickname that'd be better!"

"H-huh?" The boy wasn't exactly fond of his current nickname, so he wasn't thrilled to hear this one.

"Midori! Since your hair's green and all! Plus it's cuter than Deku!" Mina stuck out her tongue playfully than gave Izuku a warm smile.

"Midori's fine!" Izuku answered way too enthusiastically, making him cover his mouth in embarrassment, making Mina break out in a fit of giggles, he apparently needed to learn how to handle positive attention from girls.

"Anyway, You know your quirk? It's really strong! But… also kinda weak, since you apparently break yourself just from using it, huh? Why's that?" Mina had both a curious and a worried tone. Sure, Izuku sported a massive power that he inherited from OfA, but he really didn't know how to control.

Izuku began sweating more, not just from sitting right next to a girl, but also from the fact that someone was questioning his quirk. His mind running at a thousand miles per hour to find an explanation for it that wouldn't compromise All-Might, when suddenly the girl bumped into him. "Hey, you okay? You're sweating a lot and, uh, you kinda spaced out there."

"Just use the same excuse you used for your mom, Izuku…" the boy thought, and finally spoke. "It's, uh…. It's nothing, just a-a bit ho-hot in here. But abo-about my quirk… I was a-a bit of a… late bloomer." Mina perked up in interest at the boy's explanation, motioning with her hands for him to go on. "So-so my body didn't adapt to it li-like it normally would. Although, I-I guess if I had this at four years old, it might have had wor-worse consequences like my limbs falling off, or…" Izuku's speech devolved into mumbling as he thought about One For All, rationalizing if it would have even been possible for someone so young to receive it.

"Uh, Earth to Midoriya?" Izuku snapped out of it as Mina gave him a small push. "You kinda spaced out and kept mumbling, dude."

"O-Oh I'm sorry! It's a re-really bad habit I ha-have…" Izuku said sheepishly, looking towards the ground with embarrassment.

"It's cool, I find it kinda endearing actually! It's pretty neat really, You just get lost in logical thought, I could never do that, only day drea." As the acid girl said this, the boy's blush only grew more and more, so did his stuttering, but her fun was cut short as they arrived to her destination.

"Ah, this is my stop, nice talking to ya Midoriya! See you around!" Mina walked away and out of the train, waving to Izuku as she did so.

"By-bye!" Izuku sunk into his seat as less people crowded the train, and tried to process what had just happened. One thing he'd already gathered though, is that being that girl's friend was probably going to cause him to have a heart attack, or to faint, whichever one came first.


	2. Chapter 2: Trio De Hue

"Why did it have to be Kacchan…" Izuku said under his breath as he waited for the team exercise to start. He'd been paired up with Mina, which was bad enough for him, and now Bakugo and Kirishima were going to fight them. Kirishima wasn't really a problem, he had no qualms with Izuku at all. Bakugo however… Things could get messy. His entire body was shaking, he was visibly sweating, even through his mask, he was resenting being put into the same class as him. As he was thinking of their complicated past and how it all led to this, someone tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, Midori, you alright?" Mina asked, worry in her eyes as the boy was visibly shaken by his position. "You look really nervous… What's up with that? Somethin' bothering you?" Mina was someone he barely knew to begin with, having only met her a few days ago, but she felt like an old friend already, her friendly attitude and demeanor alongside her bright smile made her a very welcoming person.

Izuku took a deep breath then exhaled, he really shouldn't be telling someone he'd just met this, but something compelled him to, perhaps it was her clear worry for him, or the fact she was one of the first friends he'd made since Bakugo and him had fallen out. "Kacchan is… well, we used to be friends. We've known each other since childhood, but… he's difficult to deal with. We haven't been on good terms for a while now."

Mina's worried look only deepened, but Izuku's nervousness seemed to be subdued for now, something about opening up to someone like this was relaxing, "I was a late bloomer, meaning I only got my quirk late into my life... Really late, and he always thought that I was quirkless… so when he saw that I did have a quirk, he got mad. You saw it during the apprehension test, right?"

"Yeah, if Aizawa hadn't stopped him, he might have attacked you, huh." Mina looked down to the ground, thinking back to the reaction the blond had and looked back up at Izuku. "Jeez, sorry that happened to you Midoriya, but I'm sure we'll do fine! Just wondering how we'll work this out…" Mina stretched her arms as she got ready for the test, when Izuku spoke up.

"Throwing aside his personality, everything about him is incredible, his quirk, strength, skill, they're all amazing in their own rights… Which is why I don't plan on losing, just follow my lead Ashido." Izuku looked determined now and putting on his mouth guard, pushing aside his past experiences with Bakugo and his feelings towards his quirk, focusing instead on winning this fight without using his full power, this would most likely be a battle of endurance if anything.

"So, Bakugo, what are we going to do-" Kirishima attempted to converse with his less than happy teammate before he was cut off by him snapping at him. 

"I don't fucking care what _you_ and that pink bitch do here, I'm going to get some answers out of Deku, even if it means I have to kick his ass into the ground!" Bakugo stomped out of their room as soon as the test started, anything Kirishima tried to tell him falling on deaf ears.

"Jeez… Just what is up with him and Midoriya…" Kirishima thought about it as he shuffled around the room, the objects in it slightly obscuring his path. "I'll have to ask him later, preferably when we're not opponents."

Mina and Izuku ran into the building, Mina following Izuku close behind as per his request, she wasn't sure what he'd planned to do with their match up, but something told her it was going to be painful for one of them. "Stay alert, Kacchan could appear at any moment… And he won't go easy on either of us." As they turned a corner, his suspicions were confirmed as Bakugou attempted to blow both of them up, only barely missing due to Izuku tackling Mina to the ground.

Izuku got up, barely noticing the compromising position he'd been in just a moment ago, which Mina found strange, considering that from what little she knew, that little interaction would have made him glow red in an instant. "Ashido, you'll need to run and find the bomb now! Kacchan doesn't want anything to do with you, he's looking for me!" Izuku got into a battle stance as Bakugo grinned, looking at the boy with the intent to "get answers" from him.

"Someone's manned the fuck up, huh. Fine, let's see how you keep up with me! Show me that flashy quirk of yours, Deku!" Bakugo readied his palms and began to run towards Izuku. Mina was already gone from the scene, doing as Izuku had told her, but she couldn't help but worry for the boy.

" _I don't know what's going on with you and Bakugo, Midoriya, and honestly I'm not sure how I feel about me leaving you with him, but I trust you!"_ Mina reached the floor the bomb was located in, and opened the door, Kirishima stood there guarding the bomb.

"Alright… Just do as he told you and we'll be alright!" Mina told herself as she entered the room, ready to confront the red head. 

"So, Midoriya sent you? Pretty smart I guess, blunt force wouldn't have done much to me! Let's see if you can win again-" before he could finish, a loud and powerful explosion was heard, the whole building shaking because of it's power.

Mina quickly hid behind a pillar and tried to talk to Izuku through her head piece. "Midoriya, is everything okay?! That loud explosion wasn't aimed towards you, was it?!"

"Just… Agh, do as we planned Ashido! He's in the right position now, so be quick." Izuku said into his earpiece, then looked at Bakugo. Mina was worried for the boy, from his voice it seemed that the explosion had at least hit him somewhat, even if minimally.

He knew what Bakugo wanted to do, he wanted to force him to use his quirk, but he couldn't do that with the setup they had, so all he could do was take it. Izuku ran towards him and distracted him for a few seconds before getting hit with an explosion directly to his arm, burning away his sleeve and charring his skin. 

He winced in pain and tried to keep Bakugo in place, or at least as still as he could, but he was being relentless. "Use your damn quirk Deku! **Use it!** " At that moment, he really was considering using it, if it meant that Bakugo would stop attacking him so much.

Before long though, they heard a crack and a part of the roof that was on top of them fell, making Kirishima fall to and break the concrete as he fell through the floor. "Alright! Secure the bomb now Ashido!" Izuku then realized what had gone wrong with his plan, _"Wait, Ashido was supposed to melt the floor and make Kirishima fall_ _ **on**_ _Kacchan… This is bad!"_ All this had done was attract Bakugo's attention to their plan, which was less than ideal for them.

As soon as Bakugo heard this, he was furious. "Like hell you will!" He readied his palms to fly up there with his explosions and attack Ashido with them, intending fully to win their fight, even if he had to take his attention off of Izuku momentarily.

"Wait, no!" Izuku began to gauge his options. _"I have to slow him down somehow, and I can't do it with my quirk, unless…"_ The blond boy's decision to pay attention to Mina instead proved to be beneficial to him, and since he had no other options, Izuku ran towards him and… 

A loud crack was heard as Izuku punched Bakugo's face, staggering him and making him move a few feet backwards. Kirishima just looked at the two, mouth open at Izuku's courage to just rush into Bakugo so readily, Sadly Bakugo himself didn't appreciate this, slowly getting back on his feet, rage boiling inside of him now. "How fucking dare you! First, you don't use your quirk to try and fight me, and now you don't even use it to fucking hit me! **You're dead!** "

Before he could act on this, the buzzer rang and All-Might's voice came through the intercom, "The bomb has been secured, Hero Team wins!" Bakugo stood there, seething with rage, but no words fell out of his mouth. His breathing was heavy and ragged as the reality set in.

 _Izuku beat him. And he didn't even use his quirk._

After Izuku got his bandages from Recovery Girl and classes were done, most people had left, save for Izuku, Kirishima, Mina and Bakugo, the three were still chatting about the test's results, while the latter was looking blankly at the table, before slowly getting up and walking out of the classroom, strangely… calm. His face was just blank, no expression on it. This unnerved Izuku, usually he could at least tell what Bakugo was thinking, but now? He couldn't even do that, the explosive boy was completely unreadable.

"Kacchan?" He said softly, trying to get his attention. The boy didn't even stagger his walk. "Kacch-"

"Fuck off." There was no bite, no poison to his remark. It was less a threat and more a… statement. It was extremely unlike him, usually taking the first chance to snap at Izuku. This left the boy shaken, confused. He stood at the edge of the classroom door, his eyes wide, shoulders tense. He slowly relaxed and went back to his table to grab his backpack and left the classroom, dragging his feet as he did so. Before he could make it far however, a hand tapped his shoulder.

"Midoriya?" Kirishima and Mina stood behind him, both concerned. "Are… you okay? You seem upset about something." Kirishima spoke, the worry was clear in their tone, after what had just happened, plus the fight which had left most of the damage on him, it was only natural that they'd be bothered.

"It's… nothing really. I'm just worried about Kacchan." Izuku's look was that of both fear and distress, he looked towards the hallway Bakugo had just walked out of.

"Huh? Why?" Mina spoke up, "I know you two knew each other since childhood, but he's a huge jerk to you, so why?"

"He's never like this… sure, sometimes he can be calm and actually rational, but this is different…" Izuku's tone slowly became shakier. "H-he's… he's never had an empty expression, he's always been a very… emotional person." He clenched his fists, looking down towards the floor. "So I can't help but… think I had a hand in it, especially after today."

Before Mina could speak up, Kirishima put a hand on Izuku's shoulder and began speaking, "Midoriya, it's not your fault. You did what you had to do, win, if he's upset about that… Well, I don't know what _you_ could do, but that's his problem!" He patted his friend's shoulder quickly and continued, "So don't worry about it! I'm sure he'll be back to that abrasive and aggressive guy we all know in no time at all!" He gave the boy a thumbs up, sporting a sharp grin.

Izuku looked up at him, wiping the tears that were forming from his eyes, "Thanks, Kirishima, I needed that. I should get going now though, I'll miss the train at this rate."

Mina finally spoke up, "Woah woah! Calm down there, I know you're that nerd type of guy, but after today and what you said, I think you need to take it easy for a bit." Mina had barely met the boy a few days ago, but he seemed nice, and his dedication and kindness served to impress her, enough that she wanted to know more about him, so she decided to take this opportunity.

"You seemed _really_ tense because of Bakugo. Why don't we go grab a bite somewhere and take a breather, I know a place!" Mina smiled at the two boys, happy at her own suggestion, considering it was one of her favorite places.

Izuku was left confused and taken aback by this, "A-are you sure? I don't want to be a bother…"

"A bother? Please Midori, you won't be! C'mon, there's this place with some really good burgers! You coming along Kirishima?" Mina looked at Kirishima expectantly.

He let out a reluctant sigh, "I guess I'll go, I wanted to go the gym today, but I won't pass up an opportunity to hang out _and_ eat! Ain't that right Midoriya?"

Izuku laughed and scratched the back of his head, this was a new thing for him, he'd never really gone out much with… well anyone really, the last time he'd hung out with a friend was when he and Bakugo were kids, and how much of friends they were at that time was still questionable. "I guess I'll go too, nobody's ever invited me to anything, but… I'll take the offer!" Izuku said with enthusiasm, a bright smile spread across his face.

Mina jumped up and down in excitement, "Yay! Come on, I'll lead the way!" The pink girl gestured to the two to follow her as she ran down the stairs and outside.

After around 15 minutes of walking, with the three chatting along the way, "I don't get what the deal with Bakugo is, but you don't need to worry about him right now dude! Let's just take it easy for a bit and eat something!" Kirishima said while lightly nudging Izuku's arm. "Besides, what _could_ you do about it? You tried to talk to him, didn't you?"

"Yeah... " Izuku replied sheepishly, his voice lower than normal.

"And he didn't even let you do that, did he? That's why I'm saying man, don't worry about it. Ain't that right Ashido?" Kirishima asked their pink haired friend, who was leading the way to the diner. She turned around and smiled at them.

"Yeah! Just take it easy dude! Just a few days ago you broke your finger to pass a test!" Izuku blushed in embarrassment at her comment, it really wasn't his best moment, despite him being able to use his quirk more efficiently. "Just the fact you didn't have to do it again is a win in my book!"

The trio went on their way to the diner Mina had talked about. It was a small diner owned by a small family of 4. Because of how frequently the girl went to the establishment, she was already well known and a regular. As they walked in they were greeted by a small woman, her hair red in coloration, she wore a small apron over her uniform. "Oh, hello miss Ashido! It's been a while, hasn't it?" The woman smiled at her, then peeked over the pink student's shoulder, "I assume those are your friends?"

Mina beamed at her warmly then replied, "Yeap! They're coming here for the first time too! So, table for three!" She held up three fingers as she spoke, excited to show her two friends the place.

The three followed the woman and sat at a booth, Izuku ending up sitting next to Kirishima. Due to the booths size, their shoulders were almost touching, because he wasn't accustomed to being in such close proximity to anyone, he a small hintt of red on his face.

The three ordered their food then waited. As they waited, Kirishima spoke up. "So, Midoriya, what's the deal with you and-" He caught a glare from Mina as soon as he tried to finish that thought, correcting himself, " a-and your notebooks? You kinda write in them a lot."

Izuku became flustered, someone had noticed his habit and was now pointing it out in the open, "I-it's nothing really… I mostly just use them for writing notes on interesting quirks I see…"

"Well sure, but you're writing on them all the time! Do you really find quirks that interesting so often?" Kirishima commented curiously. His habit was unusual to him, especially his dedication to it.

"It's just stu-studies for the future you know? It helps when I'm trying to come up with a strategy." Izuku continued, averting their gaze, "If I write everything down, I can usually rationalize better you know? Guess I'm just used to doing it for most quirks now, so it might end up looking a bit weird…"

Mina chimed in, rising from her seat slightly, "Are you kidding? That's really cool!" She sat back down and laid back on her seat, "I mean, yeah it looks a bit weird at first, and maybe even creepy…" Izuku sunk into his seat upon hearing that, is that really how he looked when he was writing? "But when I got to know you, I kinda figured you _probably_ didn't have any bad intentions."

Izuku smiled a bit as he heard this, he wasn't sure what impression he'd had on his new found friends until now, but this assured him that it was at the very least a good one. "B-by the way, Kirishima?" The red haired boy perked up at the mention of his name and looked at Izuku. "What's up with your hair, if I can remember correctly… wasn't it-"

He was cut off by a hand obscuring his mouth, Kirishima shook his head as he did do. "Let's… not mention that." He took his hand off Izuku's mouth, who had gone from a surprised look to an empathetic one. Mina simply looked on in confusion at the two's exchange.

He nodded then continued, "Alright… But on the topic of quirks, how does yours work?" He took out of his pocket what seemed to be a smaller notebook with a pen in it, making both of his friends giggle. "What?" He asked, laughing slightly as well, not sure why they were laughing.

Kirishima wiped a tear from his eye, "It's pretty simple actually! I can harden my skin up, which lets me take a lot of hits!" He glimpsed over at Mina, then looked back at Izuku, "As you probably realized by now. But it does let me punch things better as well! Since, y'know, harder fists?"

Izuku was writing things down on his notebook as Kirishima continued, his mumbling slowly getting more audible. "Midori?" Mina tried to catch his attention, seemingly to no avail. "Midori!" She said, louder this time, making the boy finally snap out of it and jump slightly in his seat. "You were doing it again."

"S-sorry…"

"It's fine dude! Just messing around." As she said this, their food arrived, a few snacks alongside a plate of fries. Kirishima began to dig in at the plate while Izuku simply looked at it. "Well, what'cha waiting for? Eat up!" Izuku jumped at the comment, then let out a sigh.

"Sorry, just been on a diet for a while now, I didn't want to ruin it."

"Oh, I get it. Then think of this as your cheat day! One day won't hurt, right?" Izuku smiled softly, then began eating, he really didn't mind if it was one day, right? "There you go, cmon lemme get a piece of that too."

The day went on, and the three ate and talked. By the end of it, Kirishima and Mina achieved what they wanted, for Izuku to loosen up and distract himself from whatever was bugging him. There was laughter and jokes through the whole day, until they exited the diner. As they did so, Kirishima let out a sigh. "Phew… That was fun, you feeling better Midoriya?"

"Yeah… Thanks, really." He took out his phone and glanced at the time, "O-oh, I've gotta get going, otherwise I'll miss the train! See you around Kirishima!" He waved Kirishima goodbye, Mina following close behind.

"Sorry, gotta go too! We take the same train!" She quickly went after Izuku, only glancing back to wave at Kirishima himself.

"Alright, see you two around!"

On the train, Izuku and Mina sat beside each other, making small talk along the way. "You know Midori, today was really fun! We should do this more often!" Mina said while smiling brightly at him, then put a finger on her chin as if to think. "Although I'm not sure Kirishima would be able to come all the time, same goes for you I guess."

Izuku gained a hint of red onto his face, then glanced to the side."If, if that's what you'd want, then sure, Ashido! It really was fun, I haven't hung out with anyone like this in a while…" Izuku's own words saddened him, it really had been quite some time since he'd gone out with people he could call friends.

"Also, Midori?" Izuku perked up at the mention of his name and turned to look at Mina. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but if you need someone to talk to about whatever's going on between you and Bakugo, I'm here, alright?"

Izuku smiled genuinely and spoke, "Thanks Ashido, it… means a lot, actually." He looked up and saw a station come into view. "That's your stop, isn't it?"

"Yeah! See you around Midori!" Mina waved him goodbye as she walked off the train, Izuku let out a sigh of relief as she did so. It had been a long day, even if he'd gotten to hang out with his newly-found friends, it was still hard not to think about that morning. _Fuck off_. No bark, no malice behind it, just thinking about it made Izuku worry. He'd confront Bakugo about it some other time though, as Kirishima said, there's nothing he could do, for now anyway.


	3. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint

**Oops, sorry for the wait. Been busy with other things, anyway, hopefully the next chapter won't take as long as this one.**

* * *

Kirishima sat at the lunch table with Izuku, Mina, Iida and Uraraka. The five of them had become friends rather quickly, but he'd grown especially close to Izuku and Mina. He admired how Izuku tackled everything, even if he was usually more timid, he seemed passionate to achieve his dream. Same went for Mina, but her aloof and cheerful attitude made almost anyone who hung out with her smile. It was practically impossible to be sad with her around.

They had just been through the voting process for choosing the class president, and Izuku ended up as the president, with Yaoyorozu as the vice-president. While this was something Kirishima considered good, Izuku didn't seem too thrilled, tapping his foot constantly. "Hey, Midoriya? You doing alright?" Kirishima asked, a concerned tone coming from his voice.

Izuku snapped out of his seemingly anxious trance and looked up at Kirishima, a worried look on his face. "Y-yeah! I'm just… " He paused, looking at his hands, remembering the times he broke them just to get by, how he was barely fit to have One For All. "...worried."

"About what? Your quirk? I mean, I'm sure you can find a way aroun-" Kirishima attempted to speak, but was cut off by Izuku.

"No." Izuku continued, "I'm worried I'm… not good enough to be the class president." In truth, he was also worried about his quirk, but he also wasn't sure if he was fit to lead people. His entire life was spent being mostly alone, or simply being ignored. "I… don't have much experience in that area to be honest."

"Really?" Mina perked up, curious, "I mean, while we were at that battle training exam, you came up with a plan in like, a minute! I'd need at least ten minutes to do that! Even if it was a bit shaky, since you needed to, uh, stay with Bakugo alone. How'd you even manage that?"

"I-it was a bit more like a cat and mouse game, nothing major…" Izuku's face began flushing red at Mina's compliment, he still wasn't used to anyone complimenting him at all.

"If it helps, I voted for you!" Kirishima practically shouted out.

"Wha- Why?" Izuku was confused, he'd thought for sure he would have voted for himself, but this was news for him.

"I mean, you beat me and Bakugo fair and square, didn't ya? That's a pretty good reason for me!" Kirishima looked off to the side, slightly embarrassed, "And, I don't think I'm that good for leading people, I'm more of a charge in guns out guy!"

Iida joined in, "I also voted for you, Midoriya. After watching your battle, I believe you'd be fit for that exact purpose! You were able to keep calm when facing off against someone like Bakugo, who was clearly trying to overwhelm you, and even when he did so, you still managed to come out on top, it was an impressive feat."

Even Ochako coined in, surprising Izuku even more "Yeah! What Iida said! I couldn't _not_ vote for you after that! Besides, it's not like there were many, um… other options, aside from Yaoyorozu anyway."

"Jeez, you guys are making me feel bad for voting for myself… " Mina put on an exaggerated pout, making Izuku laugh lightly.

He scratched the back of his head, looking to the side, "If you guys think so... " They continued on, chatting during lunch, commenting on Iida's apparent "rich boy" status, when they were interrupted by a loud alarm. The ensuing chaos led to them getting separated, with Iida being the one to finally defuse the situation, as it was just the media who had gotten in. Izuku looked at him, despite what they'd said at the lunch table, he still didn't feel worthy of the title of class president, seeing Iida so easily control a crowd cemented the idea that he was the one who should have it.

As they arrived in the classroom and Izuku went up to the podium alongside Momo, he was shaking, nervous, when Kirishima gave him a thumbs up. He took a deep breath, and calmed himself down, "We'd like to choose the members of the student council now, but before that… I think Iida should be the class president, not me."

Unexpectedly however, before anyone could say anything, Iida quickly got up and spoke up. "I humbly thank you for the offer Midoriya! However, after seeing the battle trial, and your performance at the entrance exam, I will have to decline." He continued, raising his voice, "I know you are not confident in your abilities as a leader, but I'm sure that, given time, you'll become better than I could ever be." He sat back down. The class was mostly speechless, except for Aizawa, who quickly spoke up.

"If you are going to just stay quiet and do nothing, I assume there is nothing left to say, am I correct?" This quickly caused Izuku to continue on, picking the student council members and going on with their day, before Aizawa could get too mad at them for wasting time.

* * *

Kirishima entered his home, tired from the day's overall hectic pace, sighing as he stepped into the living room, before being hit in the face by a large white pillow, the sight of something flying at him causing him to instinctively flinch and harden. The culprit of said throw was Keigemi, who was laughing her head off as the pillow fell to the ground.

She is a pale girl with short black hair and dark red eyes, she's Kirishima's little sister, at only 13 years old. She constantly bickers and competes with her brother, saying she'll be a better Hero than him. This "rivalry" is heavily one sided, Kirishima himself only wishing her the best of luck with her goal. This of course doesn't stop her from keeping him on his toes with constant "dangers", including herself.

"Aw come on! I thought I'd gotten you this time!" Keigemi stuck her tongue out, "Guess you're pretty on edge huh? What's gotten you this time? A cute girl?" Kirishima tried his best to ignore her taunts, but his face was quickly becoming flushed red, "Or is it a cute boy this time?"

Kirishima stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her, his face plastered with irritation, "Look, we had an incident at U.A, things weren't exactly calm… " Kirishima let out a long sigh, "Can we not do this now?"

Keigemi tried to stutter out a response, before giving up, looking down at the ground. "Alright, alright, I'll lay off ya for now." Kirishima reeled back with guilt, he didn't mean to take his exhaustion out on her. He put his backpack on the ground next to his shoes and sat down next to her.

He jabbed her arm and smiled lightly, "Sorry about that, just a bit tired is all." Keigemi barely reacted, still putting on a pout, but it was clear from the edges of her mouth she wasn't completely serious as they struggled to not smile. "Come on, not even one smile?" He paused, "...Shark?"

"I'm not a shark!" Keigemi bared her teeth at him, it didn't take much teasing to set her off.

"Well, I guess you won't ever be able to beat me then!" Kirishima took off his jacket and hardened his arms, grinning while doing so, "After all, only someone with strong teeth could break my hardening, but clearly, you don't have any of th-" He was interrupted by his sister throwing herself at him, teeth glistening and extended, ready to bite him.

This led the two to play fight for most of the night, before they both slept on the floor of the house, their mothers arriving just late enough to see the both of them splattered on the ground, having exhausted each other out. They both let out a sigh, this was a regular occurrence at this point. It couldn't be helped, Keigemi always had a bit of a competitive spirit.

* * *

The next day came by, all of the students were excited to participate, Aizawa had told them they'd be participating in a rescue exercise. Mina and the rest of the class had all gotten into a bus to head to the training grounds, but she noticed something peculiar and decided to speak up. "Hey, Midori, what's up with the gym uniform?"

Izuku pulled on his shirt, then let out a nervous laughter. "Kacchan kinda ruined my costume… I had to send it to be repaired, so for now, I have to make do with this. I don't mind it though, it's not like it was really fancy to begin with, like yours or Iida's... "

"Well, maybe your costume wasn't all that flashy, but man, your quirk's something else! I wish I had something like that, I'm stuck with just my hardening for now." Kirishima put his arm up and hardened it, and sure enough, it didn't change much, while it was useful from a practical side, he had a point that it lacked a bit in the aesthetic department.

"I think it's really cool! It's useful for both offensive and defensive tactics!" Izuku began mumbling under his breath about the possibilities of Kirishima's quirk, a habit most of his classmates hadn't gotten used to yet, but Mina simply laughed as he did so.

"You also took that fall from the battle exam like a champ!" Mina chimed in, "Honestly, was a bit worried when I noticed how much of a fall it'd be, but you can hold your own super well!" Mina's excitement over Kirishima's quirk cheered him up, a large grin spreading across his face. Despite them being relatively close friends already, his loss still had left him a bit bummed out, so hearing her say that was something he appreciated.

They arrived rather quickly at their destination, which they quickly learned was called "Unforeseen Simulation Joint", USJ for short. As their teacher 13 explained, they had to train for every type of disaster. While they were explaining however, what seemed to be a black hole opened, what came then was all a blur.

* * *

When Kirishima came to it again, he was on the ground alongside several of his classmates. The last thing he remembered was attempting to charge at the black mist, only to be pushed aside by someone… He looked around, dazed and confused, he saw that the Black Mist was still there, but upon closer inspection, it seemed as though a lot of them were missing.

"Ugh… What happened?" The red haired Hero-to-be asked to no one in particular, still recovering from the small moment of panic. "Where's everyone?"

Shoji looked at him, despite his mask, it was clear from his eyes that he was quite shaken from this. "After you and Bakugo attempted to fight the villain, you were almost engulfed by the black mist, but Ashido was able to get you out of the way in time. I tried to save most of our classmates, but most of them ended up getting warped anyway…"

Kirishima's eyes widened, he looked at the floor. He couldn't even save one of his friends, he was more of a burden as a matter of fact. His breathing got heavier, his heart rate accelerated. In his mind were pictures of his former middle school self, pathetic and weak, who couldn't do anything at all. Just as he began shaking, he felt several hands grab his shoulders.

"Snap out of it, Kirishima. We have to stay calm, going into a panic won't help us." Shoji paused, "Stay with me, okay?" Kirishima nodded and took a deep breath. If he wanted them to make it out of this, he'd need to redeem himself, and he couldn't do that while having a panic attack now, could he.

* * *

Mina tried to keep her breathing steady as she fought against villains in one of the disaster areas. She wasn't exactly having the time of her life, and being stuck with someone like Bakugo didn't help, but she had the upper hand on them for now.

She stood still, catching her breath, the villains seem to have let up for now. "Alright… We gotta go help the others now! Cmon!"

"Don't order me around, Raccoon eyes." Bakugo snapped at her. "Those extras are capable enough to take care of themselves." He huffed and adjusted his gauntlet, looking around the room.

Mina looked dumbfounded at him, "That… Might be true, but still! From what Midoriya said, is-" She was cut off by a loud explosion from Bakugo, the smoke cleared revealing a defeated villain, his expression was one of extreme anger, but somehow, composed.

"Don't mention that fucking nerd." He raised his hand from the now defeated villain, his face was a mix of anger and frustration, "Fucking whatever, do what you want, you're on your own." He stormed off the room, not even looking back. Mina knew he was excitable, but this was a bit too much. She sighed and took off from the building, running towards where she thought Aizawa was.

On her way there, she was met with multiple villains. She froze for a second, she was outnumbered and alone, even if her quirk was strong, if she wasn't careful, she would end up hurt, or even worse, dead. She did notice however, from how close they were trying to get, they were mostly close range fighters.

She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. Mina was never great when she panicked, she became sloppy and imprecise, and she knew that. _"Come on Mina, think!"_ she told herself in her head, amidst all this, she remembered Izuku's original plan back during the training exercise, _"Right, right… He distracted Bakugo, which got us an opening. If I can disrupt them, I might have a chance!"_

She prepared herself, readying a weak and thin acid in her palms, she threw it at the floor beneath them, making most stop dead in their tracks, a few even slipping on it. She quickly slid around them, making a stronger acid in her hands. _"I've gotta be careful, these guys aren't like Kirishima, even if they probably punch the same."_ She threw the acid at them, making sure to target mostly their legs and feet, making moving around a much harder task for them.

Quickly analyzing her work, she thought that would keep them busy for long enough, and continued to slide towards Aizawa. _"Both Kirishima and Midori have given their all here, I can't slow down now!"_ She thought back to when Kirishima told her of how he saved Izuku, and how Izuku saved her when facing off against Bakugo, letting her go on ahead while he faced off against him alone. A grin slowly crept on her face, she wasn't going to be left behind, not when she already saved people during her Middle School days.

That grin disappeared quickly from her expression, being replaced by one of fear and shock. She was able to see, in full detail, how it broke him, snapped her teacher's limbs like twigs. If the odds were even for Aizawa previously, then now they had been completely turned around. The pink haired girl didn't know how long he could last like that however… her instincts kicked in, fight or flight, and she chose the former.

Sliding quickly towards them, she prepared her strongest acid, she was still a Hero in training, yes, but her quirk was extremely dangerous and powerful. She had to try, otherwise, she couldn't call herself a Hero, could she?

* * *

Izuku was frozen in fear as Tsuyu, Mineta and him watched Aizawa be beaten into a pulp. This was their answer to All-Might? If so, it was nothing to laugh at, not by any stretch of the imagination. He wished he could do something, he really did, but… The thought of something as strong as his idol facing him was not a pleasant one. With an already broken finger, he didn't have many options, just what could he do?

Then it happened, he saw someone wearing brightly colored clothes, quickly advancing towards the Nomu. He could quickly identify that person as Mina, who, as soon as she got close to the creature, hurled a large splash of acid, hitting the monster's back. The moment it made contact with it, it's skin began to melt and fall apart on the part that was hit. It paused it's pummeling of Aizawa, turning one of it's eyes at Mina.

The light haired villain began scratching his neck, he seemed nervous. "Ah… even if they're just kids, they have some truly strong quirks huh… That kind of offensive power isn't something that I can just ignore… " Shigaraki looked at Aizawa, a grin forming under his mask. "Good thing we already took care of this one…"

Kurogiri then appeared beside Shigaraki, something had alarmed him. "Shigaraki, the students were able to have one of their own escape, they are going to call the staff over… It's over."

"Ah… What a shame, it's really game over… " He began scratching his neck even more now, almost wounding it. "If you weren't the warp gate, you'd be dust by now… Oh well, if we can't have All-Might, we'll at least wound his pride… Starting with the one who attacked my Nomu." The large purple monster let go of Aizawa, turning around to look at Mina.

Chills ran down Midoriya's spine, he wasn't sure if it was the fact that, had it not been for her, they might have been their target, or imagining Mina ending up with the same fate as Aizawa. This latter thought however, created more than fear inside him. It made him not only afraid for her, but also determined to do something. This girl had always been extremely nice to him, even helping him work through him and Bakugo's rocky relationship at the start of their U.A experience. This girl, when doing that, reminded him of himself, back when he tried to save Bakugo.

The creature quickly dashed over to Mina, but before it could do anything, it felt a large hurl of air pressure hit it's back, causing it to turn around once more. Izuku stood there, now out of the pond. His legs were quivering, his breathing was rapid, but he had a shaky smile on his face. His right hand's index finger and thumb were broken now, but he'd managed to shoot out a large wave of air pressure.

"Get… Away from her!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, instead of being met with opposition from the monster, he instead was face to face with the palm of Shigaraki. The villain had dashed to him in a split second… He tried to get the hand off of him, but noticed that he wasn't crumbling away.

"Man, Eraser… You're so cool… " The villain turned towards Aizawa, who had managed to get up on one knee despite his state. Izuku was prepared to fight, when he, alongside everyone else in that facility, heard the door blow open. All-Might had arrived.

After dispatching of countless villains at once with immense speed, All-Might told the kids to run to the entrance and carry Aizawa with them, giving them a reassuring thumbs up, quickly going all out on the monster that had almost killed their homeroom teacher, going toe to toe with it.

"All-Might sure is something, huh Midori?" Mina said as Tsuyu,and Izuku carried Aizawa away. Izuku agreed with her, to an extent. He was amazing, the number one hero, the one who gave him the quirk that let him even stand in the same playing field with the likes of Bakugo. But he knew something everyone else didn't, and it terrified him. All-Might was going to run out of time at any minute now.

The green haired kid sighed, and continued carrying Aizawa, that is, until something Mineta said caught his attention. "G-guys, what's that thing doing to All-Might?!" He whipped his head back, quick enough to witness what he'd feared since the beginning. The Nomu had caught All-Might in some sort of Bodylock, grasping at his wounded abdomen, shoving him through a portal.

He knew this creature could go head to head against All-Might, he knew about his injury. He knew All-Might couldn't make it out of that alone. "Ashido… Can you hold for me?" His tone was shaky, his hands were trembling.

Mina took Aizawa and lifted him up. She was clearly confused, had Izuku gotten tired of carrying him around? Perhaps it wasn't such an easy task with two broken fingers, but she didn't question it. "Okay… You need some time to rest?" She asked slowly.

In an instant, Izuku ran to All-Might, almost jumping over the stairs. Mina barely had any time to react, she'd considered leaving her teacher to the hands of Mineta, but on further thought, perhaps that wasn't such a good idea. She took a deep breath and turned back towards the entrance. All she could do was trust that Izuku wouldn't do anything stupid.

* * *

The outcome of the battle was messy, both 13 and Aizawa had to be taken away to the hospitals, and were said to be in stable condition. All-Might won in the end, but it wasn't an easy win by any means, and Izuku had been taken away. Even those who weren't taken away weren't in great shape, Kaminari had to be carried on Momo and Jirou's shoulders. Kirishima looked at the ground, fists clenched. He wasn't able to help one of the people he'd befriended the most, he'd even endangered one of them. As soon as the detective got done explaining the situation and condition of their teachers, he raised his hand.

"Yes, uh… Kirishima?" The detective asked.

"What about Midoriya? Is he okay?" The worry in his voice was palpable, he was almost tearing up. His guilt was burning a hole inside him, almost eating away at him. Iida and Uraraka nodded along.

Iida raised his hand highly, almost stretching it, "Yes, Midoriya is a great friend, please, tell us of-"

"Settle down, settle down. He made it to the nurse's office safely, and is being treated there, I actually have some business there myself, so…"

"Can… I go with you?" Kirishima asked weakly.

Mina put a hand on his shoulder, looking at him with sympathy and added "Yeah, I'm… worried myself, can we come with you?"

Tsukauchi let out a sigh, "Fine, but you'll have to get in only after I finish my business there, it's confidential information."

* * *

The journey to the nurse's office was quiet and awkward, as Mina and Kirishima waited in front of the door, the red haired boy's unease was visible, he looked around the hallway, he was breathing rapidly, rocking from side to side. It was obvious he wasn't well, and Mina could see it.

"Kirishima… " He snapped out of it, almost startled at the mention of his name, jumping slightly. "Are you okay?"

He debated with himself if he should say anything at all. His uneasiness was a product of his own mistakes and shortcomings, no one should be burdened with hearing him, right? He didn't feel good about it, but he'd have to lie. "I'm... fine. Just worried for Midoriya." While it wasn't entirely a lie, the words stung in his throat. Why, why did he have to be this way, pathetic, weak Kirishi-

The tall detective came out of the office, hat in hand and a frail man by his side. What was someone like him doing there? Perhaps the villains had attacked some other staff, and he was getting treated here, but it didn't matter much. "Alright, you can come in now, just try not to shout."

The two were quick to run into the room, immediately approaching Izuku. Mina almost tackled him, letting go as soon as she remembered the state he was in. "Sorry! I was just… Uh... " She was visibly flustered and embarrassed, not a common sight for her.

"It's o-okay, really… " Izuku himself was flushed red, but he quickly shook it off, "Why are you two here anyway?" Izuku looked at them, puzzled, _"I'm not really worth the effort…"_ He thought.

"Because you're our friend, duh! You broke yourself to get that thing away from me! And then rushed in to help All-Might, that's super heroic!" Mina said excitedly, almost breaking the request Tsukauchi made.

Kirishima felt his chest tighten at the mention of Izuku's acts, but ignored it, he couldn't think of something so selfish right now, right? He had to be there for his friend. Even if he hadn't done much for the boy specifically, from the sounds of things, he really inspired Mina, as well as helped her and the others to make it back safely. It was all he could ask for. "Besides, you looked pretty broken. Figured we'd spend some time with you and cheer ya up!" Kirishima exclaimed with a toothy grin.

Izuku felt tears well up in his eyes, quickly wiping them away. "You guys… " Izuku sniffled, looking off to the side. "I've never really had friends like you two, I'm… really grateful. Thanks."

The day went on, the trio chatting away until Izuku got the all clear from Recovery Girl to go home. Izuku and Mina waved Kirishima goodbye and headed off to their station. Once arriving, the train was surprisingly calm, perhaps it was because they'd gotten off later than usual, but either way, it was a lot more spacious. Even so however, they sat next to each other, almost brushing shoulders.

The ride itself was fairly quiet, until Mina broke the silence. "Hey, Midori?"

"H-huh? What is it?"

"Did you notice something off with Kiri today?" Izuku's expression warped from one of surprise to that of deep thought. If he had to be honest, he was acting a bit off. He was seemingly bothered by something, but wouldn't tell them. He thought back to the USJ incident, and remembered how the red haired boy was the only one left at the gate from the three of them.

Remembering what the detective told them about 13, a chill went up his spine. "Maybe he was shaken by the whole 13 thing… He probably wanted to help with that, but I'm not sure anyone could have."

"Now that you mention it… Yeah, it was probably tough for everyone there to see that." Mina looked saddened, 13 was one of her favorites, even if only for their space themed outfit and style.

Izuku's eyes had a deep look of worry in them. "I'll…" He paused. "I'll talk to him tomorrow, I think I can relate to feeling like you should be helping, but can't." He looked at Mina, and gave a reassuring smile. "He gave me his number after the alarm incident, said it was because my offer to give Iida the title of class president was 'Manly'." Both Izuku and Mina managed a small laugh, even after what they'd been through, all of them made it out okay in the end, so it didn't make sense to feel down all the time.

"Alrighty then. Oh, that's my stop! See you around Midori!" She waved him goodbye, quickly heading off. The day had been hectic, but thinking back, he'd gotten some valuable experience from it. But the world Pros faced in their day to day… He wasn't sure he wanted to see that again in a while.


	4. Totally Not a Date

Eijirou sat at the foot of his bed, staring blankly at the wall. He was left shaken after the events of the previous day, especially because of how he couldn't do practically anything to help. The sight of Izuku's broken body, Mina's bruises, the terror on everyone's faces, those were all ingrained into his head. And he did nothing to prevent them. He couldn't do anything.

He sighed, as shaken as he was, there was no use in just sitting around sulking, if that's anything his middle school self taught him. Getting up and heading down stairs, he was met with an unfamiliar sight. His sister, Keigemi came running to him and hugged him tight. "Woah there sharp teeth, I'm not going anywhere."

She looked at him, smiling softly, no malice behind it. "I know, I'm just, uh... A bit scared for you I guess. Ever since yesterday, everyone's been worried… I'm not an exception to that." She let go, looking to the side, slightly embarrassed.

"What's this, my tough and thick headed sister, who keeps trying to get on my nerves, is afraid I'll get hurt? Like she actually cares about me?" He laughed jokingly, "Just what happened to ya?"

"Shut up! You ruined it!" Keigemi looked almost angry, but then burst into a fit of giggles, "But seriously you rock, don't go breaking on me just yet!" she punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't you worry, I won't." Eijirou grinned, even when he was feeling down, his sister always helped cheer him up, which he always appreciated. They got on each other's nerves, sure, but Eijirou knows she only does it out of tough love.

His cellphone suddenly rang. The loud Crimson Riot theme song filled the house in a deafening tone, making Keigemi cover her ears. "Uh, just a sec."

He looked at his phone, on it the name "Midoriya 💪" was written across the top. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted when he was calling him, but it didn't bother him. Maybe he'd forgotten to tell him something yesterday, or something of the sorts. "Huh. Hold on, I gotta take this." The red haired boy said before picking up the call.

"Midoriya? What's up?"

"Oh, Uh, hey Kirishima. I was just calling to see how you were doing, I've been kinda worried because of the whole usj thing..." Izuku's tone was shaky, he probably wasn't used to talking to a friend on the phone.

"Ah, gotcha. No need to worry man, I'm doing okay."

"Still... Think we could hang out a bit? I need something to, um, take my mind off of this entire thing."

Eijirou perked up at the mention of hanging out, he had to agree, something to take his mind off of the whole villains ordeal would be quite nice.

"Sure thing man! When were you thinking?" He replied enthusiastically.

"Is an hour from now good?"

"Yeah! Hey, why don't we meet near U.A? We can decide the rest from there." Eijirou suggested, it was clear none of them had many plans in mind, but that would be a good place to start.

"O-oh, sure thing. See you then!" Izuku hung up the phone and let out a sigh. "I hope I can help him feel a bit calmer at the very least... Well, guess I'll go get ready."

"Alrighty, Kei, I'll be heading out in an hour, think you can watch the house alone?" Eijirou said enthusiastically.

The girl gave a thumbs up, then a sly smile, "Yeah! You don't need to worry about anything while you're on your date!"

Eijirou went into a blushing fit, "I-it's not like that! We both just... Need to unwind after yesterday." The boy slumped his shoulders and looked at the floor, no one his age should have to come face to face with real villains, much less ones who had the power to potentially beat All-Might.

"Yeah, I know, just messing with ya," Keigemi got closer to her brother, "but just between us... boy or girl?"

"If you've gotta know... Boy. Now I'll go get ready, so, please don't bother me."

"Sure thing!" Eijirou walked back upstairs, only for Keigemi to get out a pot of hair gel she was hiding in her jacket, a grin slowly appearing on her face. "Good luck styling your spikes without this though."

* * *

40 minutes later, Eijirou ran downstairs, wearing a tank top, camo shorts and, of course, crocs, hair down, clearly distressed about something. "Hey, shark teeth, where'd you hide the hair gel?"

All Keigemi did was give him a shrug. "Dunno man, think it's run fresh out."

"But I've gotta go soon and- Agh, forget it." He considered putting on a cap to hide his unkempt hair, but decided against it, "Heading out now, be back later!" Eijirou jogged to the front door, opening it before being stopped by a finger snap from his sister.

He looked behind him, "Good luck on your date!" All he could answer with was a groan with a mix of frustration and embarrassment.

* * *

Izuku stood near the U.A gate, wearing plain clothes as usual. Truth be told, he was a bit nervous about this whole ordeal, even if Eijirou was someone he'd considered a good friend already, hanging out privately with anyone really wasn't something he'd been used to.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, Eijirou would be here any minute now. Still, how could he bring up the topic about him feeling out of it yesterday? It's not like he could just go "Hey man, you were kinda odd yesterday, what's up", he'd obviously either brush it off or just say that the whole incident left him shaken. But he knew it was more than that, he'd been there before.

"Yo, Midoriya!" Eijirou waved from afar. Izuku couldn't help but wince at his partner's choice of clothes, he'd get used to it, sure, but he assumed that they'd be far less… tacky. Then again, he's not sure what he was expecting from someone who styled his hair into spikes voluntarily.

"Oh, uh, hey Kirishima! You doing alright?" Izuku asked, before looking at his hair, "Oh, you decided to not wear hair gel this time?"

"I'm doin' alrigh- Wait, you knew already that was gel?"

"I mean, yeah." Eijirou's eyes widened in surprise, did he out himself before somehow? "You saved me back when you still had black hair, remember?"

Oh, that explained it. "Right… You don't mind it?"

"Why would I? I think you looked fine before." Quickly realizing how what he said sounded, he backpaddeled and put his hands to his face, "N-not that you don't look good now or- I'm just making it worse…"

Eijirou's face flushed slightly, letting out an awkward laugh, "I-it's fine, really!" He quickly recomposed himself, "Anyway, where do you wanna go first?"

"W-well… I was thinking we could… uh…" Izuku began to fiddle with his fingers, a small drop of sweat going down his cheek, "I… don't really know, this is all pretty new to me."

Eijirou blinked for a few moments, before speaking up. "That's fine! I'll take the lead, no need to worry about it. What do ya say we go to… how does the arcade sound?"

"I… haven't played many games, outside of some that featured All-Might in them but… yeah, sure!" Izuku answered excitedly. Sure, he wasn't that into what the arcade had to offer, but it was still something that could relax Eijirou just a bit, seeing as he noticed the boy seemed tenser than usual.

* * *

Entering the nearby arcade, Izuku was greeted by dozens of flashing lights and neon colors, sound effects from various game cabinets, laughter and chatter, the place was full of life, and just seemed extremely energetic. If he had to be honest, just from a first impression, he wasn't a fan of this place, not by a wide margin. The energy of it was just too much for him, especially since he wasn't used to being in an environment full of energy to begin with, but, he could try out a few of the games there, even if just to waste some time.

But, to his surprise, something caught his eye. "Is that…" He turned slowly to face the arcade cabinet to his right, an extremely rare All-Might based beat-em-up game was sitting there, almost untouched. "I thought that was supposed to be super rare! How is it here? Why is no one playing it?!"

"Well… This cabinet got here around… I wanna say a year ago I think? I'm not completely sure. But people obviously went all in on it when it was first installed, like they would, but... " Eijirou laughed nervously. "the game's apparently super difficult, one of those that makes you waste all your money, ya get me? I never tried it myself, I'm no good at beat-em-ups, but you could give it a shot if you'd like!"

"R-right!" Izuku quickly scurried over to the cabinet, taking an uncomfortably long time to just look at every little detail on it. "Wow…. this-this is really it." He looked at the screen, the text prompting for a coin to be entered. He looked at the cabinet's control scheme, it was surprisingly simple, two buttons and a joystick, maybe Eijirou was overestimating it?

20 minutes and a dozen coins later, Izuku concluded he was not. The game was difficult to the point of being unfair. Despite being All-Might themed, the actual character itself wasn't that good a pick, his size making him easily stunned. The other characters included some familiar figures, like Present Mic, 13, Endeavor, among others.

Losing once more, Izuku tried to reach for his pocket when he was stopped by Eijirou. "How about you stop playing for now, Midoriya? You've been at this for…" A sweat drop ran down Eijirou's forehead, "...a while now."

"R-right! Sorry!"

"It's fine dude, really. I was actually thinking of trying out that hammer thing, never tried it myself." Eijirou stretched his arms as they walked over to the machine, a classic "test your strength", where one would hit the button with a hammer and the game would determine how strong they were. "Wanna give it a shot?"

"Oh, sure!" The idea of showing off how far he'd come, at least physically, actually excited Izuku, surprisingly. He was never much of a "fighter", not before U.A anyway, but he wasn't a coward either, having attempted to stand up for others, keyword being "attempted". "I think I can give it a shot, if that's what you want."

"Alright!" Eijirou put in a coin, picked the "non-mutant" option (A setting put in ever since mutant types became more common, seeing as they could easily have enhanced strength) and picked up the hammer, lining up the shot, he prepared the best he could and remembered how his middle school friends had done it. He lifted the hammer up into the air and slammed it down as hard as he could, making a satisfying BAM.

The scores lit up and a score of 8000 appeared on the LED display. Izuku wasn't sure what the average was, but that was pretty big by his standards. "Heh, not too shabby! Almost ten thousand too!" He turned the hammer and handed it to Izuku. "Alright, it's your turn!"

The green haired boy snapped out of it, almost dropping the hammer. "R-right!" Preparing himself the same way as Eijirou, he put a coin in and took a deep breath. His wind up and hit were sloppier however, the hammer slipping from the target at the point of contact. Despite this, the screen lit up with a surprising 7500 points.

"Woah! Man, you don't look like much-" Eijirou pat Izuku on the back, grinning, "-but under those plain clothes and that soft face, you're ripped! Nice one!"

Izuku couldn't help but blush, from the comment about his body, to his apparently "soft" face, he wasn't sure if Eijirou was trying to flirt with him or what, but it certainly was working. "T-thanks! I've never been the type to really work out, so I'm kinda surprised."

"Coulda fooled me! Well, that landed us a few dozens tickets, we should get something!"

"I… Don't think that's nearly enough for anything outside of a small toy."

"Hm… You're right! Maybe we could get something from…" Eijirou looked over the arcade, before finding a stacker machine by a corner, "there! You've got some pretty good reflexes, you'll do well!"

"If you say so…"

Unexpectedly, the game went decently. Izuku wasn't able to get the biggest prize there by far, but he was able to get a small Endeavor plushie. His reflexes he'd built up from years of beatings from Bakugo definitely helped.

"Oh man! That's actually pretty cool looking! Kinda jealous actually…" Eijirou bounced up and down, smiling gleefully at his friend's display of skill.

"Uh, you can have it if you want, I already have this one." Izuku extended his hand that carried the plushie. Eijirou's eyes visibly sparkled, as his grin widened.

"Really?! Thanks Midoriya!" Eijirou quickly grabbed the plush and squeezed it. For a seemingly cheap toy, it was surprisingly well made. "Man, Kei will get a kick outta this for sure!"

"Kei?"

"Oh, right! She's my little sister! A huge fan of Endeavor, I prefer Crimson Riot myself, but Endeavor's pretty manly too."

"Wait, you know Crimson Riot?!" Izuku's eyes opened up, his mouth slightly agape by what he'd just heard. Someone his age knew about the retro hero? "That's awesome!"

"Of course I know him! He's the manliest hero of all!" Eijirou pretended to flex as if to imitate his idol, before quickly turning slightly red, "I might have styled my hair after his, heh."

"Now that you mention it… I can tell." Izuku let out a small laugh, "Not that it's a bad thing! It looks good on you! Still, I-I think I like how your normal hair looks, y'know?"

Eijirou's eyes widened, his glance quickly averting Izuku's, almost immediately he began playing with his hair, almost like a nervous quirk. "T-thanks." The boy said sheepishly.

"A-anyway!" Izuku scrambled to get off the awkward atmosphere between them, "I know, um… know we haven't been here for long, but maybe we should head somewhere else… this place's just a bit draining for me, you know?"

"Oh, sure, I get you. Say what, there's a small diner nearby, it's pretty quiet, you up for it?"

"Uh…" Izuku looked around, eyes darting around the room, sure, he wanted to get out, but… "if you're okay wi-with it, yeah…"

"Don't worry man!" Eijirou pat Izuku on the back softly, giving him a bright toothy grin, "I'm fine with going to a quieter place, we might actually get to, uh, talk there!"

Izuku smiled softly, "Right." even if this evening was intended to touch on Eijirou's issues, he appreciated being a bit more comfortable doing so.

* * *

Mina laid down on the couch, watching the tv alongside her older sister Hanko, laying her head on her thighs. She was planning on going to see Eijirou with Izuku, but her mom insisted that she stay home. Even with the company of someone like Hanko, someone very relaxed, calm, basically the complete opposite of Mina's energy, but she was still nice and kind, just ended up going along with the flow of things.

"Yo, Mina." Mina looked away from the tv and faced Hanko. "You seem kinda quiet, what's up?"

"Oh, it's nothing Han! I'm just kinda tired I guess." Mina looked at her phone on the table, the screen as dark as it had been for the past 30 minutes.

Hanko noticed the phone and let out a slight chuckle. "Whoever you're waiting for is gonna reply, don't worry about it, 'Xeno'."

Mina pouted, "You know that I don't like that nickname!"

"Alright, then how about 'Moth'?"

"...Eh?" Mina tilted her head, looking down at the floor, squinting her eyes.

"Get it? Because moths have little powder that sting and their eyes are black, just like you! Maybe that could be your hero name, 'Moth Queen'" Hanko closed her eyes and threw her head back, satisfied with her explanation.

"I… that's actually pretty good."

"I know. But Xeno Queen would be pre-" The phone buzzed, cutting her off mid-sentence. "I think you've got mail, lil' sis."

"Yeah yeah." Mina got up, stretching her arms out, almost hitting her sister in the process, and picked up her phone, it was a message from Izuku. There was a bit of anxiety inside her, maybe things weren't going so well and that's why Izuku was only messaging her now?

She let out a sigh, might as well get this over with. When she opened her phone she was met, however, with a photo. It was Izuku and Eijirou, taking a selfie as Eijirou held an Endeavor plushie close to his chest. Something about seeing them like that warmed her up inside. Izuku had sent a caption along with it, "Things are going okay! Just need to know how to talk about it…"

Mina frowned, looking up from her phone and staring at nothing in particular. How were they gonna tackle the big red spiked elephant in the room? Her foot began to tap rapidly, becoming increasingly faster.

"Hey." Hanko snapped her out of it, "What's wrong?" Her look of usual relaxation was replaced by a look of worry.

"It's… It's, uh, nothing. A friend just needs a bit of advice, and I'm not sure what to say."

"Hm." Hanko's shoulder slumped, stretching her arms out and laying back, looking at the ceiling. "What do they need advice on?"

"Well, he-he needs to talk to someone about a sensitive subject but isn't sure how to."

"Ah."

"...Well?"

"If I had to say anything, tell him that there's no good way to approach that. Just put it out, blunt and clear. Just make sure it's a good time for it."

"...Got it. Thanks Han."

* * *

"just tell him when you're like alone or something" was all Izuku read before putting his phone back into his pocket, he liked Mina but it was clear that she was as clueless about that as he was. Still, considering where they were going, this was convenient enough. They'd just gotten a few snacks that they planned to eat while they hung out at Eijirou's house, since the diner was surprisingly enough closed.

"Hey, uh, don't mind the mess, this was kind of a last minute thing." As Eijirou went to open the door to his house, Izuku put a hand on his shoulder.

"Kirishima, can we talk for a bit?" Izuku was mustering up every last bit of courage he had in him. Truth be told, he was a mess at these kinds of things, but he pretty much _was_ the only person available to him.

"Oh, uh, sure."

Izuku gestured for Eijitou to sit down on the stairs leading up to the house as he did the same, prompting him to sit down next to him. "W-what's up man? This is kinda weird."

Izuku took in a deep breath, then let out a long sigh. "Kirishima, about yesterday… " Kirishima's hand noticeably tightened as he grabbed onto his shorts, "...Are you upset you didn't get to do much?"

Kirishima looked at his feet. Izuku red him like a book, huh. "... Yeah." Kirishima looked at the road in front of them, gazing at nothing in particular. "It just felt kinda pathetic you know? I mean, I finally get into, um, U.A and I can't even help my teammate in a training exercise, and I couldn't do anything to stop any villains."

Izuku's heart was being tugged, he knew exactly how the feeling was, more or less. Feeling like you're just a burden, someone who is just taking up space, who can't help even when they try. All of this was hitting familiar notes for him.

"Hey, Kirishima?"

"Yeah…?"

"I know how it-it's like to feel like that, I really do. But…" Izuku put on a soft smile, "if I learned one thing is that you just have to keep trying. It's cheesy and silly, I know, but what you're describing, i-it's hit a few notes for me. I know how it's like to just feel like you can't grow, or do anything, but if you got into U.A…" Izuku put a hand on his shoulder. "That means you're something special, doesn't it? Besides, I still remember when you saved me from that robot." Izuku let out a hearty laugh, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't find that awesome!"

Eijirou's eyes watered slightly, only for him to wipe away at them before any tears could form. "That's… actually really nice, thanks man. I… I think I needed that." Eijirou pulled Izuku into a quick hug before letting go, looking slightly embarrassed at having done so.

"Well, we should, uh, get inside now." Eijirou got up and opened the door, only to see Keigemi next to it, wearing pajamas already, almost like she just reeled back. "... How much of that did you hear."

"Uh-"

"Just-Just go put on something decent, we've got a guest." Eijirou made a small hand wave as Keigemi went upstairs to her room. "You can come in now Midoriya, but, uh, sorry if it's kind of a mess, this was such short notice, I don't even know if my moms are okay with it, heh."

Izuku came into the house following Eijirou, and was greeted by a surprisingly large interior. Eijirou never mentioned, or even had signs of any kind of overwhelming wealth, meanwhile this was proving otherwise. Sure, the house _was_ quite big on the outside, but this was just… incredible.

"Woah… " Eijirou started to get something out, most likely an apology for the "mess", of which there was none, before he was cut off, "T-this is so cool! But wait, he's never mentioned this before, but then again he has ordered some pretty expensive stuff, then-" Izuku's muttering was cut short by a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax man, it's not that deep." Eijirou began showing Izuku around, showcasing the kitchen, the backyard, and finally the lounge room, both of them sat down next to one another on the couch. "And that's that, I actually, uh, got this game if you wanna-"

Keigemi leaped over from behind the couch wearing a oversized "Brian the sun" shirt and pink spotted pants, inserting herself between both of them. "And I'm Keigemi! Eiji's younger sis, just call me Kei."

"O-oh, hey Kei! I'm-I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Neato!"

"So, uh, anyway, wanna play it?" Eijirou gave Izuku the game, which he promptly inspected. It was called "Super Hero Fighters", with a large render of All-Might on it.

"O-oh, sure thing!" Izuku wasn't sure why, but even though this was his friend's house, he just felt welcome here. After seeing that side of Eijirou today, he couldn't help but like him a bit more, even the loud confident guy had some issues to work out, huh.

Maybe he could ask him about that one day, but for now, he was just gonna enjoy the moment.

* * *

Eijirou's mom, Kyumi, returned home after a long day of work. It was almost 1 A.M. What she didn't expect to find however was her son, Izuku and Keigemi all on the lounge room's couch, with Izuku and Eijirou being particularly close to one another, having fallen asleep right there and there. "Heh." She considered waking them up and scolding Eijirou, but decided that it would be best to just let it play out for now. She hadn't gotten the chance to talk to him yet after the whole incident with USJ, but she knew something was bothering him, however, it seems that had been taken care of.

"You're home pretty late." Shinobu said in a quiet tone as she walked into the room, carrying a small mug of coffee.

"You know how it is… taking care of a Hero's damage isn't easy, especially when they almost wrecked an entire convenience store." Kyumi sighed, her arms were almost completely exhausted from all the paper she had to carry. "So, who's this kid?"

"Just a friend Eiji brought over. He's nice, but because of how late it was, I just decided to let him stay the night." Shinobu let out a small giggle "Turns out the three little rascals took that as an invitation to knock themselves out with that game of theirs."

"Yeah, still, if he had fun…" Kyumi smiled softly. "I'll be with you in just a second dear, just have to change from this stuffy office outfit."

"Alright, alright. Don't keep me waiting for too long."

Shinobu walked out of the room, as Kyumi set her things down on a table, she stopped by and gave Eijirou and Keigemi a small kiss on the cheek. "Night~" She went on her way. While the sudden guest was a tad bit unexpected, she still appreciated Eijirou actually spending time with someone, as long as he was happy, so was she.

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

 **Sorry this is late, but I guess I should talk about some of the family members.**

 **Keigemi is Eijirou's younger sister, as was estabilished earlier, 13, absolutely loves teasing her brother but also cares a lot about him.**

 **Hanko is Mina's older sister, at 17 years old. She's the complete opposite of Mina, energy wise, always relaxed, but she cares in her own way. She was long, extremely curly, light pink hair, and horns that curl. Her eyes are normal though.**

 **Shinobu and Kyumi are Eijirou's and Keigemi's moms. Eijirou's dad and his biological mom, Kyumi, ended up getting a divorce early on when Keigemi had just been born, so neither of them have any memories of him. Kyumi ended up eventually meeting and dating Shinobu, and the rest is history.**

 **Eijirou and Keigemi's quirks are both variations of their mom's surprisingly enough, whose quirk is "Muscle Hardening". Similar to hardening, but not quite as "spiky".**


	5. The Beginning of the Festival

Izuku woke up slowly, his back a bit sore from sleeping in a weird position. What time was it anyway- Oh god did he miss school? Was he gonna get scolded by his mom and Aizawa? That early panic subdued when he remembered that U.A would still be dealing with the press today, as well as securing the school more, so classes were cancelled for yesterday and today.

This did not stop the panic from returning as soon as he sat up from his sleeping position, only to realize he'd fallen asleep right on Eijirou's arm. "Did I really just do that?!" He thought to himself, covering his mouth to not let out a very flustered yelp. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"'sup." Keigemi said in a lower tone as she surprised Izuku from behind, having also fallen asleep on the couch, albeit on the other side. She was holding a small mug that said "#1 sis" on it, a smug smile on her face. "Sleep well?"

Izuku couldn't really get a word out, all he did was throw an embarrassed glance at her and then just kept panicking in silence. "Thought so~" She said, taking a long sip from her mug as she did so. She got up and walked away silently giggling to herself. She was going to hold this against both for as long as she could.

It didn't take long for Eijirou to wake up after that, opening his eyes and letting out a long yawn, "Man, what time is it…" He let out before getting up and stretching his back, producing a satisfying crack. "Oh, mornin' Midoriya." As he said this, Eijirou did a double take, before putting two and two together.

"Oh my gosh dude, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean- I should have taken you home- I'm so sorry-" This was the peak of shame for Eijirou, he'd just made one of his best friends sleep in his house because he forgot to take him home or at least warn his mom, what was he thinking?

"I-it's okay Kiri-Kirishima. Besides, I th-think it was pretty nice." Izuku put on a warm smile as hard as he could without breaking into a blushed mess, even if he wasn't attracted to Eijirou (at least he thought he was), this was just embarrassing for him.

An awkward silence filled the room, being only interrupted by the sound of Kyumi's footsteps. "Oh, good morning you two! Thought you'd be asleep for a bit more, but I guess not." She glanced at both of the teens, one having a silent nervous breakdown, the other hiding his face in his face. "Alright, what happened here?"

Eijirou got closer to his mom, talking in a hushed shout, "It's just- I made Midoriya sleep here without even warning his mom! She must be worried sick- I should have asked him first! Look at him! He probably hates me now!"

"Dearie, I'm sure it's fine, he's probably a bit embarrassed both of you slept on the couch together. Besides, your mom told his mom he was going to be spending the night when you two had just dozed off, no need to worry."

He let out a sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping, "Oh thank goodness… wait, what do you mean by "together"?"

"Oh you know, he fell asleep next to you, and I think he kinda fell on your shoulder."

"Ooooh." It suddenly clicked for him why his friend was acting like that, Eijirou walked over to the couch, where Izuku was still trying to compose himself, and rested his arms on the back of the couch, "Hey man, you don't have to worry about the whole sleeping thing, I don't really mind! Kei does it all the time, I'm just used to it by now."

"Y-you sure?"

"Yeah man! No worries!"

Eijirou could practically feel the relief Izuku had just let out, almost letting out a laughter, "C'mon, it's already-" He looked at the clock, "9 am? Huh, thought we'd slept in a bit more. You want us to take you home or you gonna go home by yourself?"

"I'd… I'd appreciate it if you could take me home, I'm not sure many trains are passing by my district now." Izuku had calmed down considerably now, even if the thought of having actually slept so close to someone still messed with him.

"Well, I'm heading off to work, so I could drop you off there." Kyumi spun her car keys around in a flashy manner, "So, how about it?"

"Yeah, that-that sounds good, , if it's not too much to ask."

Izuku got up, stretching, before walking over to Kirishima, "Well, guess we'll see each other tomorrow then Midoriya! Take care!"

"Y-yeah! See you then!" Izuku shook his hand and got out of the house alongside Kyumi.

Keigemi popped out of the corner, mug still in hand, but now empty, a sly toothy grin on her face, "You like him, don't you?"

Eijirou spun around, a slight red tint to his face, "Of course not! I mean, he's a cool guy, and really dedicated, also super nice, and yeah I guess I like him, but-" He waved his arms in front of his face and took a deep breath, "Look, it's just not like that, okay?"

"Alright, alright." Keigemi giggled, "But if it is, you owe me a Endeavor figure!" She exclaimed before getting a pillow thrown to her face, almost knocking her over, before stumbling back up and throwing it back. This ended up going on for several minutes, only being stopped by their mom Shinobu, under the threat of "no more hanging out with your friends."

* * *

"Thank you once more for dropping him off!" Inko said as she waved Kyumi goodbye, as soon as she was out of view and Inko had gone back inside, she broke down crying, hugging Izuku tightly, "My Izuku spent the night at a friend's house! I'm so happy!"

"Y-your Izuku can't breathe-" Inko let go of him, still crying her eyes out in happiness, "-and it wasn't really planned, but… yeah. I-it was really nice too, Kirishima's a good guy, y'know?"

Inko wiped away her copious amount of tears, sniffling, "Aw, that's good to hear, Izuku." She gave him a lighter, softer hug, "I'm so happy things are going well for you, even with that scare, you're still doing fine."

After a long and warm reunion, Izuku went back to his room and opened his phone. Aside from copious amounts of missed calls from his mom, there was a text Mina had sent a while ago. _"Aw dang it! With all of that mess between me and Kirishima, I forgot to check my texts… I wonder if she's still online."_ He swiped on the message, "forgot to ask but how did it go?"

Okay, good, it wasn't anything too pressing. He quickly typed out "It went well! I ended up actually sleeping over there on accident, but aside from that, I think he's feeling a bit better!", which is much more elaborate than her responses, but he didn't mind.

"oh?

you slept over?

way to be forward midori"

Izuku almost caught on fire with that last message, why did she like doing this to him? It wasn't like it was intentional, and he didn't even think of Eijirou in that way, and yet he always got flustered when someone mentioned it.

"just messing around

good to know hes doing alright

thanks midori"

A grin slowly crept on Izuku's face. Despite her teasing, Mina really cared for her friends, especially if they were in some kind of trouble. He hadn't really thought about it, but he was really lucky he'd befriended so many good people already. Iida, who, despite his stern exterior, was a good friend, Uraraka, who cheered him on when she could, as well as amused him with her over-the-top bluntness sometimes, Mina, who always managed to make him laugh somehow, and Eijirou, who was just a joy to be around with.

He really was glad he'd managed to make friends, true friends. Going to U.A was, quite possibly, the best thing to happen to him.

* * *

The next day came, and with it, so did some big news. Apparently they were going to have a sports festival in two weeks. That by itself already put anyone on edge, but Izuku couldn't even control his own quirk properly, what chance did he have against students from the entire school who had their whole lives to practice?

Even after class had ended, he had stayed behind, sitting on his desk, writing away in his notebook. Mostly notes about One For All, which he referred to in it as "Super Power", to avoid suspicion. He was beginning to see flaws with his "Egg in a microwave" metaphor. It gave him too much of a narrow view of One For All, so much so he was having trouble even visualizing a lower output than 100%.

"Midoriya!" He was snapped out of it by his friend, Iida. "I admire your dedication to your studies, but perhaps you would like to study elsewhere? As the class president, you should know that you shouldn't stay in the classroom after classes have ended!"

"R-right, sorry Iida. Just got lost in thought." Even if Iida's a friend of his, sometimes, he can be a tad bit overwhelming. Still, where could he practice his quirk without troubling anyone else? "See you around Iida!" He got out of the classroom, still deep in thought.

From around the corner, Mina appeared, as if she was waiting for him to get out of the class, "Yo, Midori!"

"Oh, hey Ashido! What's up?" Izuku had ended up picking up a few talking habits from his friends, including just being more casual and open with them, which led to him using different kinds of slang, even if inadvertently.

"Oh, nothin' much! I just wanted to see if you'd like to come with me and Kiri to the gym! We're gonna train our quirks a bit, and since you could use some of that yourself, so I thought why not?"

"A-ah, well, I was planning on just doing that at home, but I guess that's a bit dangerous, huh?"

"Yep! Alright, let's go, Kiri's already waiting for us!"

Mina grabbed Izuku by the wrist and began to drag him there, "W-wait! Iida will get mad if we r-run in the hallway!"

"And do what? Run to catch us? Wouldn't that make him a culprit too?" The pink girl giggled, Izuku liked Mina, he really did, but sometimes, there was just no reasoning with her, was there? If she was set on doing something she liked, she was gonna do it, one way or the other.

* * *

"I'm glad you decided to join us Midoriya! I actually wanted to talk to you about your quirk!" Eijirou said this as he put on a white headband with "RIOT" written in red. Oh boy, more people wanted to talk to Izuku about his quirk, he couldn't blame them, this was something that people were naturally interested in, but it just bothered him.

" _Maybe he'll actually try to help? No… he's probably just curious on why it breaks me."_ He thought, but he decided to humor him, he was his friend after all, and he _did_ let him stay the night. "Shoot."

"Well, uh, how do I put this…" He paused. "How are you trying to control your quirk? It just seems like you should be able to control it by now, even if only a little." There was genuine concern in his tone of voice, not something rare for Izuku, just surprising in this case.

" _Huh."_ A surprise, Eijirou actually wants to help him out. _"Well, might as well tell him."_

"Well, I usually try to imagine an egg in a microwave, which would-would be me, and I have to make the egg not explode." Both of his friends looked at him with confusion, tilting their heads, "I-I know it sounds weird, but it's what I've got so far…"

"Hm, no, it ain't that weird…" Eijirou said while stroking his chin, "Just trying to think on how you could better that."

"I think I got it!" Mina jumped up and down, raising her hand. "You said an egg in a microwave, right? Well, those usually have a button to regulate their power, don't they? You're basically trying to make it not explode while on the highest potency! Why don't you try to, figuratively, lower that power?"

Izuku and Eijirou's mouth stood wide open, "I… first, I'm really surprised to see that coming from you, second, I hadn't thought of that. That could work, Ashido!" He began writing down some notes on his notebook, quickly scribbling out a rough plan of action.

"Hey, what's that supposed to- ah forget it, just try it out!" Mina crossed her arms, a slight taunting tone to her voice, "Who knows, you might actually not break yourself this time!"

"Alright." Izuku took a deep breath, then focused on one of his fingers, if this was going to cause any damage, it might as well be minimal. _"Lower the potency and heat up the egg…"_ Izuku began to feel a slow heat building up in his finger, much slower than when he was activating his 100%, or, like a microwave heating up an egg … but slower.

He did hit a cap however, as the power began to pain him immensely after a few seconds, making him reel back and grab his finger, letting out a yelp in pain.

"Midoriya!" screamed both Mina and Eijirou simultaneously, rushing in to help him. Seems like that even with a slower output, going above what his body could handle was out of the question.

Izuku put on a grin, "I-I'm fine!" He let go of his finger, it was red, but… "It's not broken!" both of his friends let out a sigh of relief, before Eijirou opened his mouth to say something before being cut off, "It took me around 8 seconds before I reached a limit that my body couldn't handle, so if I can just barely cut it short…"

This time, he was going to be more ambitious, he grabbed his bicep and closed his eyes. Slowly counting up the seconds, he began raising his power. "1...2...3...4...5…" He began to feel his muscles start to strain, immediately stopping, only holding in what was already "charged", so to speak.

Small green sparks could be seen coming out of his arm, just barely noticeable. "Woah…" Eijirou looked at him, just surprised at how flashy his quirk was even without breaking himself, "That looks awesome! Can you actually throw a punch with that arm?"

"I-I think so." Moving was a little stiff, and it would probably still hurt when he actually landed one, but he could certainly throw a punch.

"Then try it out on me!" Eijirou took off his Gym shirt, only staying with a white tank top that was underneath, this display put a slight red tint on Izuku's face, as well as a magenta tint on Mina's.

"A-are you sure Kirishima? I don't know how much power this is, although, if I had to guess... " He opened and closed his hands, letting the sparks fly freely, almost measuring his new found power output, "I'd say this is 3%."

"Well, even if it hurts, it'll be good training for both of us! C'mon!" Eijirou hit his chest, making both Izuku and Mina giggle.

"If you say so… Here I go Kirishima!" Izuku reeled back his hand, as Mina just watched silently, and threw a punch. Eijirou hardened right before, but was actually pushed back when the fist made contact with him, making him even flinch in surprise.

"Woah woah! ...Wow! That was pretty good man!" Eijirou dusted off his shirt, stretching his arms in the process, "Wasn't thinking much when you said "3%", but that already means business! I mean, if I could feel it even with hardening, sheesh."

"S-sorry! But still, that was… I think I'm finally getting the hang of this!"

"Heck yeah you are!" Mina got closer to both of them as she said this, "But just punches aren't gonna do much good, you think you can use that on your legs? You could probably do some sick jumps with them if you got the hang of that!"

"I-I'll try!"

This continued on, becoming almost routine for the three to meet up every other day to help refine each other's techniques, as well as just spend some more time with each other. "Huff… Huff…" Eijirou panted heavily as Izuku and he kept throwing punches at one another. What was bugging both however was how quickly his armor seemed to degrade, after a few punches from Izuku's 3% smashes, it was like his hardest mode had gone down to his weakest in no time.

"Al...Alright, time out, Kiri." Izuku straightened himself out and took a breather, "How does your… your quirk work?" He asked between breaths.

"I'm- Hnng! -I'm pretty sure it works based on stamina." He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. "Which might explain why I'm running out of it so soon, I mean, I just got out of a hustle with Mina, and she nearly burnt a hole through my top!"

"And I said I was sorry! You almost got me too!"

"And you burned my favorite top!"

"It's just a white tank top!"

"A-anyway, maybe you're overusing your quirk?" Izuku intervened before they could begin biquering for the rest of the day.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well…" Izuku began to count on his fingers, "... think of it like a special bar, I guess, when you stay hardened through your whole body, you end up using it up much quicker, without giving it time to regenerate." He paused, taking in another breath, writing on his notebook, "But if you only used it when you were about to be, um, hit, maybe it could work for a bit longer?"

"Huh, never… never thought of that actually." Eijirou hardened just his right forearm, and got into a battle stance. "Alright, let's give it a shot, come at me Midoriya!"

This honing of abilities and quirk went on until finally, the day of the sports festival arrived. All of the students were in a room, preparing for their big day, Mina, Izuku and Eijirou were all sat together, chatting away while Izuku applied some green bandages to his arms and put on red gloves. "Aw man! I wish we got to use our costumes, mine is so cute!" Mina lamented, as she laid her heads onto her arms, pouting, "At least they let me keep my shoes, even if I had to put in an order for them…"

"I-it could be worse, Mina! I mean, at least this keeps it fair for most, right?" Izuku smiled nervously, but noticed something odd. As of late, him and Eijirou were calling Mina by her first name. Whether it was something they just began doing, or something she asked them to do, he didn't remember. But unlike when he would try to say Asui's first name, which would come out forced, this just felt… natural.

"I _guess._ " Mina pouted, throwing her arms out, then lifted her head up, "Oh well, at least we're all trained up, huh Midori?"

"Yeah man, you went from a one time wonder to actually controlling it!" Eijirou gave him a pat on the back, "I'm sure you'll go far in this one!"

"Thanks, you two, I-I couldn't have done it without you, really!"

Their little chat session was interrupted by Todoroki, "Midoriya."

"O-oh, uh, what is it Todoroki?" Izuku was slightly weirded out by this, there wasn't any reason for Todoroki, arguably the top of the class, to approach him now, right? But there wasn't any reason to really be suspicious of him, so Izuku got up. "Is something wrong?"

"Objectively speaking, I'm stronger than you." The green haired boy had to agree, he was probably stronger than 90% of his class, heck, he might only have a real challenge against Bakugo, for what that's worth.

"Um… Yeah, I guess?" Where was he going with this?

"I know All-Might's got his eye on you." Wait, what? "I won't pry for details, but… Just know, I will beat you." The room filled with hushed whispers and disbelief, seeing as the perceived "strongest student" had just made a war declaration to the more quiet kid, essentially.

Eijirou was about to get up to say something, when Mina shot up, anger spread across her face, not an expression anyone was used to seeing, "Hey, what's the big idea?! You can't just pick a fight now, we're about to start!"

"I'm…" Izuku cut his pink friend off, "not entirely sure why you're bringing this up now, and you are undoubtedly stronger than me, by a large margin, but-"

Eijirou attempted to speak up, "Hey man, don't need to be hard on yourself-"

"-Everyone is gonna be aiming for number one," Izuku glared at Todoroki, "I will too! With everything I've got!"

"...Tsk, right." Todoroki dismissed his little speech, the two being interrupted by a buzzer telling them they'd be going out now. "I'll hold you to that."

Izuku hung back a bit as everyone walked out, giving Eijirou and Mina a thumbs up as they passed by him, "Good luck you two! Let's meet each other at the finals!"

* * *

The obstacle race had started, and Izuku was already about to be caught by Todoroki's ice. That sounded about right for his luck, and had he been the same him from 2 weeks ago, this might have stopped him. But this time, it was different, remembering his practice with Mina and Eijirou, he powered up one leg and shot himself forward, leaping over most of the ice.

" _Thanks, Mina, Kirishima!"_ He thought to himself, before seeing Mineta be flung by a robot. "The faux villains…?" Izuku wasn't prepared before for the faux villains, even freezing up on sight, but this time, with his new skills, maybe, just maybe…

This train of thought was interrupted as he saw someone with suspiciously spiked red hair get crushed by the now frozen giant robots, "Kirishima!" Both Mina and Izuku screamed out, he'd just had tons of metal dropped on him!

This small shock quickly vanished as Eijirou got out of the scrap pile, shouting his lungs out, "AS IF I'D DIE!" a wave of relief came over both, before they realized they still had to get around the robots, which would prove to be a pain for one of them.

Izuku readied himself as he ran towards one robot, " **3%... DETROIT SMASH!"** punching one of it's arm's clean off, but in return, his arm had received some kickback as well, not anywhere near breaking it, but it still hurt. It seems like he wouldn't be able to rely on that for now. He could however rely on the arm he'd broken off, picking it up with one arm and swinging it quickly thanks to the strength boost from One For All, decapitating the robot.

Izuku suddenly felt his feet sinking, he quickly spotted Honehuki making the ground seemingly soft, making it exceedingly difficult for him to even move. He wasn't going to let that stop him however, he grabbed one of the robot's corpse and pulled himself up using his quirk, once on top, he quickly lept away with one leg once more, managing to avoid the trap setup by the 1-B student.

He continued running, having tied that metal arm to his left arm, constantly using his quirk on it to carry it more easily, which proved to be a challenge after a while. Still, he had to maintain that as he crossed the bottomless pit, and finally reached the minefield. An obstacle he would have to deal with less, now that he'd arrived later.

Crossing it would prove to be somewhat of a test of his own luck and aerial maneuvering, as he used the leftover mines as propulsion, and the metal arm as a shield, he was barely able to pass Bakugo and Todoroki, "What the hell are you doing Deku?!" the former shouted.

Mina and Eijirou were both surprised by this showcase, maybe even a little proud, but at the same time, both feared that their friend might be getting ahead of himself a bit and might just end up visiting a nurse he's all too familiar with now.

Landing roughly and throwing the metal arm to the side accidentally, Izuku noticed both Todoroki and Bakugo quickly catching up. He didn't really have a choice now, without the metal arm, he wasn't going to be able to trigger another explosion safely, and Todoroki's ice was quickly catching up, which could prove useful... he hadn't tried it before, but he was going to have to use One For all on both of his legs. Getting up and practically leaping with every step as to not fall on the ice, he began to power himself up. But even at 3%, they were also speeding up, the only real reason Bakugo hadn't caught up yet being that Todoroki had frozen one of his arms, he needed to cross the finish line fast, so Izuku decided to take it a step further.

Increasing the output on his legs to 5%, he began a mad sprint, disregarding the immense pain going through them at that exact moment. He was able to run fast enough to finally, cross the line with a fair distance between him and the others. He took it all in as Mic announced his victory, before the adrenaline wore off and he almost fell to the ground, clutching his legs.

"Agh!" He yelped in pain, a very similar sensation to the one he had two weeks ago, except that now, it was affecting the entirety of two of his limbs. But, he had still made it, and in first place too! He couldn't be happier. Well, he could, but he probably had a nurse to visit.

Iida came through the gate not long after, upon seeing his friend kneeling on the ground, he immediately rushed over and lifted him up by the shoulder, "Midoriya! Are you okay?"

"M-mostly, just got a bit reckless, nothing's broken though, I think." Izuku winced as he touched the ground with one of his legs, "But, um, do-do you think you could help me get to Recovery Girl? I'm... not exactly in the best shape to walk."

"Of course! What kind of friend would I be otherwise?"

"T-thanks, Iida." Izuku slowly limped away with Iida carrying him, even if he hadn't broken anything, he was still for sure gonna get chewed out by Recovery Girl. Just maybe not as severely as usual.

As more people got through, Eijirou and Mina came by, in 12th and 9th places respectively. "Man… I thought I would have placed a bit higher… still, I guess 9th ain't bad all things considered." Mina lamented to herself. "Wait, where's Midori?"

Midnight cracked her whip as soon as enough people got in, announcing loudly, attracting the attention of both, "We will be taking a short break in order to take care of those injured during the race, but we'll move on to the next event soon enough!"

"*Huff* I'm-I'm not sure. Maybe he's in the crowd? I mean, he's not that tall, could blend in." Eijirou remembered Izuku's little stunt, and began to panic, "W-wait, do you think he's in Recovery Girl's office?!"

"...Oh my god you're right! We gotta go see him, he might have broken something!"

The horned duo ran through the halls in a hurry, the worst possible outcome in mind. If he'd broken something, they wanted to at least be there for him, what kind of friend wouldn't be, right? "C'mon, c'mon… There!" Mina pointed to the Recovery Girl's office, before sliding it open quickly. "Midori, are you here?!"

The pink girl was met with a loud shushing sound from the nurse, "Try to keep it down will you? There are people here trying to recover!" Mina bowed and apologized, before noticing Izuku applying some bandages to his legs himself.

"Midori! You're… okay?"

"I mean, yeah? Why wouldn't I be?" A genuine confusion was in Izuku's voice, maybe he was oblivious to the fact he had a track record of broken bones, or simply knew it was going to end well this time.

"Erm… no reason."

Kirishima finally caught up, entering the room, "Midoriya! Are you-"

"Shhh!"

"S-sorry, uh, Midoriya, you okay?"

"Y-yeah! Iida carried me here, b-but it's nothing serious, just strained my leg a bit too much is all!" Izuku smiled, trying to convince them that the injury wasn't that serious.

"Well, he's not wrong," Recovery Girl added, "compared to anything else he'd gotten earlier, this is nothing, but you oughta be more careful boy!" She hit her self destructive patient in the leg with her cane, getting a yelp out of him, "That could have really stopped you from participating in any future events for today! It might just be a simple muscle injury, but it doesn't mean that it can't have severe consequences, got it?"

Izuku nodded sheepishly, "T-thank you, I'll keep it in mind." He turned to his friends, smiling, "Well, I-I guess we should get going then? The break won't last long, I think… most of the injured were people who didn't even make it to the finish line."

The green haired boy ended up being right, shortly after they got back to the center of the stadium, a buzzer rang, signifying the end of break time. Midnight gave the instructions for the next event, a cavalry battle, which excited Izuku, he would finally be able to work as a team with his best friends! "There is a catch though!" Midnight cracked her whip once more, pointing to the first place, "The one who placed first in the race will be worth…" The score board began to slowly rise, more and more, seemingly endless, until finally, "10 Million points!"

A pit formed in Izuku's stomach, that meant he was a target for the rest of the teams. "You may now pick your teams!"

Izuku approached his group of friends slowly, "I-it's okay if you guys don't want to be a part of my team, it-it's a lot of pressure, one milli-"

"Stop stop stop." Eijirou intervened, "I'm in."

"Huh?"

"I trust ya man! Your planning skills are really good! And so far, you haven't shown anything to make me doubt ya!" Eijirou flexed his arm, hardening it, "Let the other teams come, we'll show them what for!"

"Same here Midori! You helped me and Kiri get better at using our quirks! Besides…" Mina called back to the day where Izuku and Eijirou ended up going out to help cheer the latter up, "...I kinda owe you one, just helping with your quirk isn't enough for me."

Izuku's face became slightly tinted, before he turned to Iida and Uraraka, who were discussing something between them in a hushed voice, sporting serious faces, before nodding to one another, "W-well, Uraraka, Iida, I can't get you both, but, I think either of you would be great for our team!"

Uraraka looked off to the side, her brow furrowed, a frown on her face, "About that… I certainly appreciate what you've done for me, heck, you've saved my life back at the entrance exam… but..."

"Midoriya, while we may be good friends, in this festival, we are still rivals, regardless of our previous relationship." Iida continued, "I won't lie, your performance so far, while it doesn't attract a lot of attention, it is, sadly, better than mine. With that in mind, so that I may reclaim the Iida family honor…"

"And so I can help my parents live a carefree life…!" Uraraka finally turned to face the three, determination burning in her eyes.

"We are going to give it our all against you!" Both of them said in unison, sporting grins of fiery dedication to their cause.

Mina clenched her fists, she was about to speak up in favor of Izuku again, when he stepped forward, a smile on his face, "Then I'll return that! Don't go easy on me you two!" She calmed back down, thinking about it, she couldn't be mad at them for picking that plan, even if it went against their group, this was a competition, not a friendly spar. They were out to win, and so was her team.

Uraraka and Iida went their own way, heading straight to Todoroki, Izuku had an idea of what they had in mind. "That being said… if we only have 3 people, I don't think we'll stand much of a chance, will we?" He began mumbling to himself the possible choices for his team.

Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder. "If you'll excuse me, I may be of assistance."

"T-tokoyami!" Izuku jumped slightly, before calming down, "You really startled me for a second… but are you really willing to enter my team, I mean… we'll be prime targets because of our headbands."

"Correct. However, after seeing your tactics through our exams, and this race, I believe that I might have something I could learn from you." Tokoyami brought out Dark Shadow, "I need to learn to rely on others, so I thought you'd be good for that."

"Eh? How's that a problem?" Mina asked, tilting her head, "I mean, it pretty much has no weaknesses, right?"

"That's the thing." Tokoyami explained to the three how his quirk worked, it's weakness to light and how it became stronger in shadows. "Midoriya, you are planning on being able to retrieve your head band in case it is stolen, correct?"

"Y-yeah, of course!"

"At the moment, I can only think of two people who would make that difficult, Todoroki and Bakugo." Tokoyami put a hand on his chin, "However, now that I think about it, so far, Todoroki has not used his other side, has he?"

"Right, he hasn't used his fire yet." It suddenly clicked, "Which means that if we use your quirk to retrieve the headband, they wouldn't have much to stop you with!"

"Precisely."

"Thinking about it now…" Izuku had an idea, looking towards Dark Shadow, "How much weight can he carry?"

This back and forth continued on for the full time they had to prepare. "Midori really doesn't miss a beat to prepare, huh?" Mina commented.

"Yeah, but that's really manly! If he has enough time, I don't think anything could get by him!" Eijirou grinned wide, "Besides, we just need to be on the defensive most of the time, which should be easy enough!" Eijirou hardened his arm once again to prove a point.

"Heh, guess you're right." Mina laughed, truth be told she was nervous for what was about to happen, but it was inevitable, she just can't think of how a certain someone will react to Izuku's progress, or, well, his first place overall.

* * *

The crowd's cheering got louder, every team formed, the countdown began, "3!" Izuku took a deep breath, and steadied himself, "2!" Bakugo put some form of goggles, a bright blue coming from their lenses, "1!" Todoroki's breath ran cold, as Uraraka made him weightless, Iida took on a running stance, and Momo prepared a shield.

" **START!"**


	6. Cavalry Battle, with a side of Darkness

The battle begun, and two teams were already on Izuku's trail. One led by TetsuTetsu, with purely 1-B members, and the other led by Hagakure. He immediately saw Honehuki trying the same trick he'd used before in the race on him, trying to make them stuck inside the ground.

"Tokoyami! Use Dark Shadow to push us away from here as hard as you can!" They needed to get away from that team in specific, otherwise, they were going to be sitting ducks. Tokoyami simply nodded as Dark Shadow appeared out of his stomach, pushing them away from the now softened area with a strong blow to the ground.

"Geez, you four are heavy!" Dark Shadow shouted, clearly mad at having to do such heavy lifting, "Don't ask me to do that again!"

Izuku looked back at where they were, team TetsuTetsu and Hagakure were fighting each other, "I don't think we'll need to worry about that for now. Just keep running!"

Making a mad dash to avoid any other teams, Dark Shadow was able to spot a certain mass of sticky balls coming from Shoji, "Enemy over there!" He swatted the flurry of balls coming towards them, sticking most of the balls onto his arm.

"Nice going! Mina! Acid under them!"

"You got it!" Mina launched a good amount of a weak version of her acid, making it hard for Shoji to approach without falling over, or simply hurting himself, "Let's see you try to get away from that!"

"That's dirty, Midoriya!" said a voice from inside Shoji's "tank", a strangely nasally and lisp voice...

He didn't have much time to dwell on that however, because next came Bakugou, charging at them through their front lines, completely leaving Kaminari, Sero and Hatsume, his entire team, behind "COME OVER HERE, DEKU!"

Tokoyami almost sent Dark Shadow out, before Bakugou was successfully parried by one of Eijirou's arms, which earned him an explosion to the head, which he was mostly unaffected by due to hardening at the last minute, "Don't interfere, Shitty Hair!", before Bakugo could continue his assault, he was pulled back by Sero, and promptly almost punched a hole in his head, "I didn't need help! Squid hair's goggles let me see how much time I had before touching the ground, I had that in control!"

"Heheh, that's my baby for you!" Hatsume laughed, carrying on her right side what seemed to be a jackhammer, most likely to break Todoroki's ice, in case they got caught by it.

"You still could have warned us!" Kaminari added, all he was met with was a string of curse words before they had to go and deal with the fact that a 1-B kid had just stolen their headbands. If someone ended up dead in this battle, it would _probably_ be whoever dared to steal Bakugo's headbands.

"...Squid hair, fire up that jack hammer," Bakugo put on a threatening face, "We're getting that headband back, and we're getting some others while we're at it! We'll have an overwhelming victory, whether they like it or not!"

Izuku pondered his options, "If getting off the horse is legal as long as you don't touch the ground, then…" He didn't have much time to continue his thought process before two waves of ice blocked them off, one from behind, and another one on the front.

In the half-half student's team was Uraraka, Iida and Momo. "Thanks to Uraraka's quirk, we were able to get here faster than usual…" Todoroki stared his opponent's team down, "...let's get this over with, Midoriya." Todoroki charged at them with his team, Momo giving him some sort of metal rod.

"We can't get away from them," Izuku readied his quirk on his right arm, "this is gonna be a head on battle! Tokoyami, keep them at bay!" With more than half of the time gone already, if they could keep this up, they would come out on top.

"Get ready Todoroki!" Iida shouted as Uraraka made most of her team weightless, save for Iida himself, almost vomiting right then and there. Thankfully or not, Iida's recipro burst activated soon enough to stop her from doing so. Dark Shadow attempted to stop him, but was instead knocked far away by the impact.

"Dark Shadow!" Mina screamed as he shot past her, blown away a few feet from them, Iida panted as he recovered from his Recipro Burst, and gave his entire team a breather, Todoroki

"I-is something wrong?! Can he still figh-" Izuku began to feel his forehead, which felt like… it was missing his headband. "They-They got the headband! And with Dark Shadow out-"

"I've-I've still got one left in me!" Dark Shadow suddenly spoke up, having retreated near Izuku already.

"Then… Carry me there!" Izuku was met with a surprised face from both Mina and Eijirou, "If I'm right, Todoroki won't use his fire, not against me, so… you should be okay!" Izuku jumped from their hold and onto Dark Shadow's back

"Wait wait wait!" Mina pleaded, "We could be-"

"Aye aye!" Dark Shadow began to extend towards Todoroki and the others, Izuku riding him as carefully as he could, his quirk activated in both of his arms and legs, as soon as he got near to Todoroki, he saw him instinctively raise his left arm, and slowly saw the flame build up.

"Now!" He lept off of Dark Shadow, making him duck close to the ground, but still following Izuku from under him. Izuku used his air time to grab 2 headbands, quickly tearing them off, being singed lightly by Todoroki's left side, before bouncing back off of Iida's head, falling on top of Dark Shadow again.

"Do we still have the 10 million head band?!" Momo questioned.

"Y….yeah." Todoroki answered shaking as he looked at his left hand, almost breaking his promise to not use his ice.

Being dragged back into their horse, Izuku inspected their points, "625!" He tied them around his neck, quickly spotting Bakugo's team coming for them, well, rather, just Bakugo, using his explosions to propel himself towards them.

This was interrupted by Mic's booming voice, **"TIME'S UP!"** , which caused nearly everyone to breathe a sigh of relief that this absolute chaos of a free for all was over, with their team coming in 4th. Mina and Eijirou put Izuku down on the ground, before they both gave him a light slap on the arm.

"Midori! You can't just do that without warning us! You could have touched the ground and gotten us disqualified!"

"Yeah! C'mon, pretty sure the nurse said to, you know, be careful!" Eijirou pulled him into a side hug, a slight blush on his face, "That being said, that was totally awesome man."

Mina did the same from the other side, ruffling his hair while doing so, "Agreed! Just be more careful, will ya?" Eijirou let him go, while Mina kept a hold on him for a while longer.

"R-right, I'm sorry, I just… I don't know what came over me." Izuku's face became red with a mix of embarrassment and flusteredness, being cut off by Tokoyami.

"While I'd have to agree… you did end up making us win." Tokoyami smiled, "I'm grateful to have been a part of your team, it was truly a learning experience."

"You were the one who came to us, Tokoyami, but-" Izuku smiled, "I'm also glad you got to help us out! Thanks for everything Tokoyami!" Izuku gave him a thumbs up, before the goth teenager walked away, probably to go sit down in a dark area and recover Dark Shadow's energy, or just brood.

"Alright everyone! We'll be resuming the events after a one hour lunch break!" Midnight announced, before promptly turning her small microphone off.

"Oh oh! Let's go grab something to eat together Kiri, Midori!"

"O-oh, sure thi-" Izuku felt a hand on his shoulder, maybe Tokoyami forgot to tell him something? "A-ah, Tokoyami, is that you? Is somethi-"

It was Todoroki, his face looking more frustrated than angry. "Midoriya. I have to talk to you about something…" Mina looked over Izuku's shoulder, shooting a glare at Todoroki, "... If you could, please. It's… quite important."

* * *

Mina and Eijirou sat at the lunch table alongside Iida, Uraraka and Tokoyami, the latter having decided to spend some more time with them after regaining his energy. 15 minutes had gone by and no sign of Izuku anywhere, at all. All of them were starting to get understandably worried. "Hey, you don't think Todoroki, you know…" Eijirou was trying to stop himself from thinking the worst possible outcome, but Izuku beat Todoroki once, and managed to outsmart him in the second round, even if they didn't get first place, with his previous "war declaration" in mind, it was hard not to think of any other outcome..

"N-no! Of course not! I mean-" Mina was extremely jittery, running out of breath quickly. She calmed herself down and started over, "I mean, sure, he's a jerk, but he's still trying to be a Hero, I don't think he would have done anything to Midori, at least, not over a competition."

Iida spoke up, clearing his throat, "Right! And even though he might want to, he is the son of the number 2 Hero, Endeavor! I do not think he has malicious intentions, nor do I think he would want to tarnish his own family's name!"

Uraraka ate a bit of her food, she had gone ahead and bought something for herself to eat already, purely for the fact that all of the food today was 50% off, "Yeah! I mean, I guess I can see why you two would think that, but I don't think he'd do something like that to Deku. Todoroki might look cold on the outside, but he isn't a bad guy at all!"

"I'll take your word for it, Uraraka…" Mina sighed, she wasn't sure why she was so attached to Izuku at that moment, and why the prospect of him being in trouble made her so anxious. I mean, they'd definitely know, Todoroki's quirk isn't subtle, and Izuku can take care of himself. Still…

"Ashido's concerns are not unfounded however," Tokoyami gave a piece of a biscuit he was eating to Dark Shadow to get him to calm down, "while it is true that Todoroki does have the heart of a hero, sometimes, we let anger get the best of us."

Uraraka immediately swallowed her food, "You're not helping!"

Izuku put a hand on Eijirou's shoulder, making him jump a bit, "H-hey guys! Sorry I'm late, I, uh" Izuku thought back to the whole exchange between the two, which ended up honestly quite awkward for him, just having him spill out his whole life story on him, "was, um, doing things."

"Midori!" Mina shot up from her seat in excitement and relief, pulling him into a hug, before letting go once she realized what she was doing, "I'm so glad you're okay! I was honestly thinking you two had started fighting each other, or something like that!"

"Wh-What? Why would Todoroki fight me?" Izuku sat down next to Tokoyami, laughing to himself a bit, "Sure, he had that whole war declaration thing, but I think I know why now. Still, he didn't seem to have any hard feelings towards me." Izuku looked off to the side, slightly uneasy, "For now, at least."

There was a slight air of tension on the table, all of them were going to the last event, and most likely end up against one another, that combined with the Todoroki situation made things… interesting, to say the least.

In an attempt to break the ice, Eijirou sat up, "ANYWAY! We should probably get food before lunch's over!" Everyone in the table nodded, they could at least agree on that, "And Midoriya, for that manly stunt last event, I'm paying for your lunch!"

"Y-you don't have to!" Izuku blushed lightly and hid his face in his hands, Eijirou could be a bit much for him at times, with his whole manliness thing, which he didn't really get, but it didn't bother him, most of the time.

"No, but I want to! Now come on, I can't pay for you if you don't come with me!"

* * *

"Alright Mina, you can do this… You can do this… you've gone through worse…" Mina looked at her cheerleader pom poms, her frown growing more, "... no I haven't." She let out a long sigh, looking forward, "C'mon Mina! You've gotta do this!"

"While it… might be a bit embarrassing, I-" Ochako tried her best not to stutter, trying to prove to herself that she has some false courage, "I think it'll be fun! Even if Mineta is around, heh." Ochako gave Mina a warm grin, bringing the pink girl's spirits up ever so slightly.

The girls went out, all of them looked to be at peace with the situation at first, after all, this was something the school requested, right? All of this inner peace went away when Mic loudly asked, **"WHAAA?! WHAT'S WITH THE FANSERVICE, 1-A?!"**

Jirou cursed out Denki and Mineta as she threw her pom poms on the ground, Momo sunk her head in shame. Mina herself ,while embarrassed, tried to make the best of it, "Well, if we're gonna look like this, might as well play the part, right?"

She jumped a little when she felt two hands on her shoulders, if the ones were doing this… "H-here…" Eijirou muttered out, face red, before putting his jacket over her shoulders to try and cover her up a little, staying only with a black tank top, making Mina herself blush. While it didn't really help the situation with her skirt much, it still covered her upper half, the gesture was certainly appreciated.

Eijirou walked back to next to Izuku, getting a few nudges and looks from his male classmates along the way, giving him a thumbs up, _"Good to know my idea worked… "_ Izuku thought to himself, he was used to being embarrassed, but he was almost certain he couldn't say the same for Mina, so anything that helped her was something he wanted to do.

The R-Rated hero then explained the next event, a one-on-one tournament, nothing more, nothing less. Aside from two people dropping out and being replaced, it was pretty much what Mina expected. Something still bothered her however. If she won against her first opponent, Aoyama, which she was sure to do, she would fight Tokoyami… a chill went up her spine, even knowing his weakness, there wasn't much to do really.

She thought of asking Izuku for help, she wasn't good with strategy, at all. Most of what she did was just instinct, or trying what she already knew. She saw that the boy was already preoccupied with Ojiro, it seemed important, whatever it was. His words echoed in her head, _"Let's meet each other at the finals!"_ , well, if she wanted to do that, she would need to win.

She took a deep breath, whatever happened next, she had to relax for now, stressing over it now when she hadn't even had her first fight wasn't gonna bring her anything. She smiled as she jumped, accepting her temporary role as cheerleader. She saw how her little performance had grabbed the attention of her red and green haired friends, almost trying to avoid her gaze, making her giggle. Maybe it wasn't all bad after all.

Yeah, even if she lost in the end, she would have fun with this tournament. What's the worst that could happen?


	7. Break The Ice

The festival's tournament started, the first match, Izuku vs Hitoshi, went off without much incident, aside from two broken fingers from the former, that is. He ended up getting scolded this time not only by Recovery Girl, but also by Mina.

"Midori, I get it! You had to do it to escape from his quirk," Mina explained as she stabbed her finger into his chest. "But Ojiro said he'd warned you about Shinso's quirk already, c'mon!"

"I-I know! I know that!" Izuku attempted to defend himself, his voice getting shakier by the second. "I-it's just… It's just that… I don't like it when people insult my friends, I just… end up acting out I guess."

Mina's heart fluttered as he said this. Despite his recklessness and over-emotional responses almost costing him his win, he was still a good person at heart, and both of those things could be positive, in moderation that is. She sighed and grabbed him by his non-injured finger.

"M-Mina-"

Mina puffed her cheeks, trying to look as upset as possible, "Let's just go! You'll miss all of the other fights at this rate!" She really couldn't stay mad at someone like him, no matter how hard she tried, he was always trying to help someone. And she liked that.

* * *

Most of the fights, including Mina's own match against Aoyama, were pretty uneventful, save for Sero and Todoroki's match, which only had anything special going for it because of the latter's angry discharge at his opponent, causing an entire side of the ring to be frozen. One match that interested Mina though, was Eijirou and TetsuTetsu's. Two people with, according to what he'd told her, almost the exact same quirk. This wasn't going to be a match of just power, but of skill as well.

"I kinda wish Midori was here…" The green haired boy ended up following Uraraka after she retreated to the prep. room. She didn't blame him, the brunette was going up against Bakugo of all people, one of the strongest students in their class, maybe in the entirety of the first year even. It was probably nerve wracking.

She initially considered going as well, but she wasn't much of a strategist to begin with, so she probably couldn't help much, if at all. She sighed, sometimes, she wished she could do more for her friends, but this just wasn't possible.

Eijirou and TetsuTetsu walked up to the ring. Mina noticed one thing however, Eijirou seemed to be missing his blue jacket, until she realized that she still hadn't given it back to him, making him fight in nothing but a tank top. Mina's face went magenta as she realized the implications of this.

She was thankfully saved from her class putting the pieces together by Dark Shadow. "Here." Tokoyami covered her face from her classmates as he used the dark being as a sort of blanket. Mina calmed down a bit at this, the bird boy was a nice kid, even if a little broody.

Focusing on the match at hand, the pink haired girl noticed that both the contestants ended up receiving the exact same introduction, much to the red haired one's annoyance. "C'mon, couldn't even mix up our intros a bit?" Eijirou mused to himself.

* * *

The match started, and both of the contestants rushed at each other, Eijirou landing the first punch, which did absolutely nothing to TetsuTetsu, _"Of course… wait, what did I practice with Midoriya again?"_ Eijirou blocked TetsuTetsu's attack with both of his arms, until he remembered what he'd told him to do.

" _Harden right as the attack's about to land! Don't stay hardened for too long Kirishima!"_

He smiled as this came to mind. This tactic could be the decisive factor between winning and losing, and he was thankful Izuku had come up with the idea, he hardened his face right as TetsuTetsu's punch was about to connect, saving him a bit of his own stamina, and still blocking the blow.

They continued to trade blows, both getting increasingly more and more tired, TetsuTetsu's stamina being ever so slightly behind, until finally, both were staring each other down, panting and out of breath. TetsuTetsu was still fully covered in Steel, while Eijirou hadn't activated his quirk.

" _His body…"_ Eijirou looked at his opponents face and arms, they were both cracking, and showing signs of metal fatigue, _"This is my chance!"_

Eijirou rushed at TetsuTetsu one more time. "Crap!" TetsuTetsu put his arms in front of his face, blocking.

"That won't work this time!" Eijirou hardened his arms to the max with the stamina he'd saved up, and began to continuously punch TetsuTetsu, going as quick as he could, his metal skin breaking more and more as he did so.

"AAAAGH! IT HURTS!" TetsuTetsu let out multiple screams of pain as his arm's protective layer broke more and more, until Eijirou used an uppercut, reminiscent of Mina's, to break his guard completely.

"The finishing blow!" Focusing all of his hardening into his right arm, he landed one solid punch into the nose of TetsuTetsu, sending him flying back, rolling backwards, almost landing outside of the ring. Eijirou put up his hands, expecting him to get up, even if his own hardening had run out for the match. As Midnight walked over to him however, she found out that he was out cold.

"Kirishima Eijirou is the winner!" Midnight cracked her whip, announcing loudly to the world the winner of this match. Eijirou watched as TetsuTetsu was carried away by two medical robots. Despite their match and out-of-nowhere rivalry, he had to admit, his steel counterpart was pretty damn manly.

"Man, I'm actually kinda glad I ended it right there…" Eijirou relaxed his shoulders and muscles, _"I'm not sure what I would have done if he got back up, I didn't have a single bit of stamina left in me…"_ He paced the halls, his next opponents were either Bakugo or Uraraka, he didn't look forward to a match with any of them, both of them could overwhelm him in some way or form.

He let out a deep breath. No use in musing on that now, he didn't even know who was going to win the next match, well, it was most definitely Bakugo, but, still. You never know when fate could change.

* * *

Mina felt a pit in her stomach as Uraraka's match ended. She wanted to say the girl had a chance, but… yeah. Few people really did have even the slimmest of hope of even challenging the likes of Bakugo, or Todoroki. It was honestly surprising how far she got, and she even saw what maybe was the tiniest glimmer of respect in Bakugo's demeanor towards the end.

She now stood outside the prep room, waiting for Izuku to get out so she could talk to her. She could have gone in with him, but she felt like maybe she wanted some privacy. Not long after, Izuku walked out of the prep room, glanced at her, putting his hand up as if to say "wait".

Mina waited for a few minutes, took a deep breath and knocked on the prep room's door, letting herself in, "Uraraka?"

"O-oh, hey Ashido!" Uraraka wiped at the tears that had formed in the corner of her eye, "I-I was just talking to my parents, you don't have to worry." Uraraka put on her best smile, although, it wasn't quite as convincing after her whole conversation.

Mina sat down next to her, smiling softly, "That… smile isn't fooling anyone Uraraka." Mina put a hand on her shoulder, trying to not startle her, "You feelin' alright?"

"I…" Uraraka hesitated, she considered lying again, but her pink friend was a bit more skilled at reading someone. She looked to the side, not wanting to meet Mina's eyes, "I'm just disappointed I guess. I mean, I got this far, I made through the obstacle course with a good ranking, I got first place at the cavalry battle! But…" She wiped away the tears that had begun to form once again on her eyes, "I ended up losing where it actually mattered. At this rate… I'll never get to help my parents."

"Hey, hey, Uraraka?"

Uraraka sniffled, "Y-yeah?"

"Knock it off."

"Wha-"

"You didn't just lose to some random kid, you didn't lose to a kid from General Studies who had never seen any action in a single day of his life, which Midori almost did! You lost to Bakugo. And you know who else would have lost to him?"

"W-who?"

"Literally everyone else! Okay maybe not _Todoroki_ , but literally anyone else would have lost to him!" Mina threw her hands up, "You lost to one of our strongest, and you made him go all out! To me, that's a victory right there! Besides, I'm pretty sure you'll get plenty of internships. So... " Mina gave the brunette a thumbs up, "Keep it up!"

Uraraka couldn't help herself and pulled Mina into a tight hug, surprising the pink girl, but in a nice way. They stayed like that for a good few minutes, before finally going back to the stands.

* * *

After a short break to allow for Cementoss to properly fix up the ring, the match that everyone… okay only Izuku's friend group, was waiting for. Todoroki vs Izuku. Mina was tense, even her usual calm demeanor was wavered by imagining what could happen to her friend, especially after Sero's match.

" **START!"** Mic shouted, and with that, Todoroki immediately shot out a torrent of ice, which was countered by a flick from Izuku's left hand. Mina winced. The boy could just casually break his fingers, and not even think about what would happen to them. He just did.

It was terrifying.

Another torrent of ice, and another broken finger. She looked to the side, to see if any of her friends were having the same reaction. Eijirou was completely engaged. He couldn't stop looking at the fight, even with his worried expression. She did notice however, that he ended up bending the rail that he was holding onto.

She looked back at the fight, two more torrents of ice came, and so did two more broken fingers. She wanted to yell out to him to stop breaking himself, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't listen to anyone at this point. Izuku staggered, probably trying to handle all the pain. He staggered just long enough for Todoroki to reach him, unleashing a wave of ice much closer to him this time.

He tried to jump away from the attack with a 3% jump, but he couldn't focus at all. His leg caught, he pulled back his right arm and punched the ice away. Mina covered her mouth, Eijirou was practically breaking the rail off by now, while the rest could only watch stunned.

"It's over." Was all Mina could think as Todoroki unleashed one more, giant wall of ice.

But Izuku didn't think that. "Where are you looking?!" The green haired boy growled loudly, despite the audience's cheers, he was still audible through all that. Using his broken finger, he smashed away the wall of ice. Mina was afraid, she really was, but, there was something more.

Izuku's determination to succeed, leading him to take even the most extreme measures, his willpower to keep going despite all of the pain. And he was still such a nice kid. The pink girl's heart fluttered, she hadn't thought about it before, but… did she _like_ him?

" _Focus Mina!"_ She lightly slapped herself on the face, _"Now is not the time!"_

Paying attention to the battle once more, she caught Izuku mid speech, "...you still haven't put a scratch on me yet! **Come at me with everything you've got!** " His voice echoed through the stadium, a chill ran down Eijirou and Mina's spine. She hadn't really seen this side of him ever since the first battle training, but, as much as she hated to admit it, it reminded her of Bakugo in a lot of ways.

Todoroki rushed at him once again, much slower this time, "Is he… getting tired?" Eijirou pointed out. Mina didn't doubt it. He had unleashed more ice all together in this match than he had against Sero, and that covered almost the entirety of half of the Stadium. She expected another ice attack, but it never came, as Izuku lunged for Todoroki's chest, flying at him with a quick One For All boost, then landing a solid 3% punch in.

He was getting inpatient, he couldn't even wait to regain some of his stamina before charging in at Midoriya. It was very likely that this was the longest _real_ fight he's ever had. Being sent flying back, the dual colored boy barely got any ice into Izuku's arm.

"Despite all of the damage on Midoriya, it's like they're evenly matched!" Iida shouted, "If Todoroki can't shake that slow down off, he may end up losing!"

The matched raged on, the wounds were getting bigger, and so was everyone's anxiety. Who was going to win? Was Midoriya finally going to dethrone Todoroki's title as unbeatable? Or was he going to stay one of, if not the strongest in the class?

Mina was practically shaking at this point, a sweat drop running down her face. She was getting more and more afraid for Izuku. He was breaking himself without regard for his own safety… what was he even trying to do?! She was almost shooting up from her seat, when…

"I-it's okay." Eijirou said as she grabbed Mina's hand, holding it, "M-Midoriya knows what he's doing! He's smart! He'll figure it out!" The red haired boy tried to give her his best smile, which wasn't very… big at the moment, but it was enough to put her at ease.

"R-right…" She sat back down, still holding his hand. While this would normally be embarrassing for both of them, the tension of the situation made it easy for them to completely forget that embarrassment, and focus on one thing.

" **You can do it Midoriya!"** They both shouted at the top of their lungs, cheering him on as much as they could from the stands. Their friends, Iida and Uraraka quickly joined in, with Dark Shadow doing his best as well. They were all cheering, hoping he'd win, until…

Fire. Todoroki used his fire. Eijirou's grip tightened, she could feel how much more nervous he'd gotten. She couldn't blame him, he'd never seen Todoroki use his fire. As a matter of fact, no one had. But now that it had come, it was overwhelming. They could feel the intense, burning heat from the stands. They could only imagine what Izuku was feeling right now.

What happened next was a blur, Todoroki used his ice, Izuku leaped over it, a wave of fire came-

An explosion. Despite Cementoss' and Midnight's efforts to stop the match, the former could only appease the effect the combustion would have. Mina took cover, as Dark Shadow did his best to protect his friends and Tokoyami, Eijirou hardening, and Iida covering Uraraka.

Once the dust settled and the smoke cleared, a pit grew in their stomachs. Izuku Midoriya was out of bounds. Mina's worry only got larger once she noticed what had happened to him. He'd broken almost every limb in his body, going limp and unconscious. She almost had to restrain herself from jumping there and carrying him to the nurse herself, but she had to keep her composure.

Eijirou put a hand on her back as she sat back down, biting down on her nails. "I-it's okay to be afraid. But…" Eijirou recalled his talk to Izuku, and his day with him, "Midoriya's a strong guy. He'll be fine."

This helped ease Mina a bit, as she grabbed the red haired boy's arm and held it tight, trying to find comfort in whatever way she could. "Right. He is." Everyone tried to process what had happened, but one thing was for sure. Izuku was the first one to successfully push Todoroki. Maybe he might actually get some attention now.

-Author's note-

 **SO  
** these action centered chapters are getting shorter and shorter

i don't really know how to write action sorry

plus this isn't exactly that exciting, just an event we've seen before being told through different lenses

i'll try to write something more later on, i promise


	8. Show your stuff Eijiro!

Izuku stumbled out of the nurse's office, one leg and arm bandaged, and a cast-covered arm. He really had done it this time. He made everyone worried enough that they went to visit him in Recovery Girl's office, even if he didn't remember much from their visit, likely because of left over anesthetics.

He rubbed his head with his now disfigured left hand, "Ugh… why am I like this…" if it wasn't enough that he broke possibly every bone in his hands, he lost the match too. Saving Todoroki from his internal struggle was important, yes, but losing like he did…

As if on cue, the half-n-half boy turned the corner, almost bumping into Izuku, "Ah-"

"T-Todoroki! S-sorry, I'll be on my way…"

"Wait." Izuku froze in place, was Todoroki about to yell at him for sticking his nose where it belonged? For trying to solve his problems for him? "Are… you okay?"

"Huh?"

"I asked, are you okay?"

"W-well…" So, that was unexpected, but not unwelcome, "..yeah, aside from the cast."

"That's good…" There was a long awkward silence between the two. Something about trying to have a casual talk with someone you were screaming at not long ago was slightly uncomfortable.

"I-" Both boys tried to talk, talking over each other.

"Y-you go first Todoroki!"

"I… also wanted to thank you. For a moment…" Todoroki clutched his left hand, "I forgot about my father. You showed me a bit of clarity, so… thank you."

Izuku wasn't sure how to react, but his words felt… sincere. There was a certain soft tone to it, very different to the tone earlier, when he declared "war" on Izuku. The green haired boy tried to say something, but Todoroki had already started going back to the stands.

Going to the stands, right before reaching their small space, Mina saw Izuku and ran up to him, "Midori! You're up!" The girl almost pulled him into a tight hug, stopping just before she actually touched him. "Maybe… that's not the best idea." She backed off slightly and put her hands on his shoulders, "Glad to see you're okay!"

Normally, physical contact with a girl would make him flustered, but he was almost positive that because his anesthetics hadn't worn off completely yet, he didn't mind as much.

He smiled, "Yeah! Recovery Girl is a miracle worker…" Izuku shuddered at the thought of the surgery going wrong, shaking that away as soon as it came, "Anyway! How was your match?"

Mina looked off to the side, a small frown appearing on her face, letting go as she rubbed her arm, "I uh... I lost pretty bad to Tokoyami. I mean, it's not like I could have done anything about it! And he was cool about it, apologizing after it, but still..."

"W-well, if it helps, I lost to the second round too!" Izuku gave her a warm smile, "I think you were pretty great to get that far!"

Mina's face flushed as she received the compliment. "Thanks! You were awesome yourself! I mean…" A small sweat drop rolled down her face, "...aside from the whole, uh, breaking thing."

"I bet I got you guys pretty worried, huh?"

"Yeah you did!" Mina playfully flicked Izuku on the nose, "Don't do that again, dummy!"

"I-I'll try!"

"Anyway, we should go sit down! Kiri's match is gonna start any minute now!" Mina grabbed Izuku by the arm, helping him walk to the stands.

"R-right!"

* * *

Eijirou walked up to the ring, cracking his knuckles. While he put on a tough, confident face, considering his opponent was none other than self-proclaimed number one in class, Bakugo, he was _extremely_ nervous inside. Taking a deep breath, he looked at his opponent, who shot a vicious glare back. Someone was holding a grudge. Probably because he made him lose to Izuku.

"Hey, shitty hair!" Bakugo screamed out, "Here's a deal, if you manage to land just three hits on me, I'll start calling you by your actual name! I know you hate it when I call you that, so I'll give you a chance to show your stuff!" He smirked, cracking his hands. Eijirou himself couldn't help but grin at the challenge, something about this, while nerve wrecking, was strangely exciting.

Both got into a fighting position as Mic screamed out to start the match. _"Just keep what Midoriya said in mind, just keep what Midoriya said in mind…"_ He rushed Bakugo down as the blond boy dodged him effortlessly. Eijirou kept a close watch on Bakugo's hands and arms. Even the slightest twitch and he would harden.

But he kept dodging and dodging. Maybe he'd figured something out from watching him fight TetsuTetsu? Maybe… _"If this keeps up, I'll run out of stamina before he even lands an explosion on me!"_

The red haired boy did something right out of Izuku's books, and decided to use some strategy. Feinting a left jab, right before his hand was to connect (he knew it wouldn't), he headed for Bakugo's stomach with a right hook. He was caught off guard by this, considering his opponent wasn't one for strategy, and got hit full on with the blow.

He staggered back, coughing, the full weight and strength of Eijirou's arm hitting him all at once. Eijirou hit him one more time in the face while he was still stunned, making him fly back. Once he did that, he immediately got on guard, he knew Bakugo wasn't going to let that happen again.

Bakugo staggered back up, "So… that's the game we're playing, huh. Is that it?! Suddenly you go from a rocky piece of trash who can't even dodge racoon eyes to actually hitting me?! No. You didn't…" Eijirou could feel Bakugo's rage building up, almost seeing a red aura around him, "You threw the damn match, didn't you?! Because of you, I lost to Deku! But I'll show you now, ohoho, yeah. You wanna play tough huh? Then try this on for size!"

Bakugo flew at Eijirou with alarming speed, landing an explosion right on his face, making the red haired boy flinch despite his hardening, "I'LL BLOW YOU AWAY!" Bakugo landed, then began to fire off one explosion after another, getting quicker and stronger with each one. Eijirou, while he withstood the first few blasts, was having his armor broken away by the vicious blasts.

" _I-I can't keep this up for long!"_ Eijirou screamed in his head as the heat of the blasts overloaded his senses, until they finally stopped. Bakugo took sharp, heavy breaths, his hands shaking, smirking. Eijirou could feel his consciousness slipping away, his vision blurring as he stumbled forward slightly. This was it.

" **YOU CAN DO IT KIRISHIMA!"** Eijirou heard from the stands, glancing their way slowly. Izuku was there, screaming at the top of his lungs despite being in no condition to do so. Mina joined in, pumping her fists in the air.

As images of Izuku's and Mina's fights flashed in his head, he remembered his family. They were watching from home, weren't they? And to see their son lose so quickly… To not even get to the third round for his best friends… No. He couldn't afford that. Something lit up inside him, adrenaline pumping through his veins. His vision became clear again, his blood was pumping with all it had, he felt a second wind come.

"I ain't losing that easy Explosion Boy!" He shouted as he hardened his entire body to his absolute max, stomping forward. He didn't care for stamina or pain anymore, if he was going to lose, he wasn't gonna lose easily. No, he had to put his old self to shame.

Bakugo was caught off guard, but reacted quickly, he shot out another explosion Eijirou's way. Although the hardened student was pushed back lightly, his will wasn't damaged. He pushed forward, taking in the blasts coming his way, he could feel his body succumbing to the pain, but he kept pushing forward.

"Time to end this!" Bakugo screamed as he shot a full powered blast right into Eijirou's left side. The pain was extremely harsh this time, almost immediately blacking out, e stumbled sideways, almost falling. But he saw how close Bakugo's arm was to him, and took the chance.

He grabbed Bakugo's forearm and pulled himself back up, "Wha-GET OFF OF ME!" Eijirou charged forward as he received another large blast to his right side. Throwing his full weight at Bakugo, he landed another punch square on Bakugo's nose, making him stumble backwards in pain as Eijirou let go, panting and coughing, his vision entirely blurry now. Everything was heavy, he couldn't even muster up hardening anymore.

He grabbed his now bleeding nose, which was probably broken, "You… bastard!"

Eijirou let out a weak laugh, "Ha… Ha… I hit you… Three… times…"

Bakugo, realizing this, became even more enraged, prepared to shoot out another blast. Before he could do that however, Eijirou stumbled backwards slightly, then fell forward, landing on the ground face first.

"Wait!" Midnight signalled for Bakugo to pause his murder parade. She walked over to Eijirou, crouching down and turning him over. He was out cold. "Kirishima Eijirou is unconscious! Bakugo moves to the next round!"

* * *

Eijirou walked out of the nurse's office, messing with his hair, apparently she had to wash his hair to get all the charred hair gel out. That was _one_ downside to his little showcase, he supposed.

But that wasn't what really bummed him, if people saw him without hair gel, then so be it. What he was fixated on was the fact he lost. After getting so far too, maybe he really wasn't cut out for this after all-

His line of thought was suddenly interrupted by a pink blur, tackling him into a hug, "Ohmygosh, you're okay!"

Eijirou quickly recognized that as Mina, Izuku following behind her not far behind. "H-hey Mina… Yeah, I'm okay, just, hurting everywhere, haha." He tried to hide how hurt he was in both senses with a laugh.

"H-hey Kirishima!" Izuku waved with his non broken arm, "Glad to see you're up and about!"

Mina looked at Eijirou's face as she pulled away from the hug, "...Hey, you got something on your mind?" She asked, concern showing in her tone.

"I-I'm fine, I swear! Just a little shaken from being blown up over and over is all, haha!"

Mina wasn't convinced, "C'mon, I know that look, are you really okay?"

Izuku joined in, "Yeah… you did look kinda down before Mina tackle-hugged you."

"I-" Eijirou paused, "I'm just a little bummed out I lost to Bakugo I guess."

Mina let go, giving him a light punch to the arm, "Oh come on Kiri! If you'd lost to him like I did to Toko, I'd get it, but you put on one hell of a show!" Mina punched the air with a hook, "You punched his guts, then made him go all out! You might have lost, but you lost with style!"

Izuku chimed in, "Yeah! You used our strategy to the best you could! Even if, uh, in the end you had to harden all over… Still! You're guaranteed to get a ton of offers out of that!"

Eijirou smiled softly, snapping out of his sulking. Yeah, they had a point, while he lost, he gave Bakugo one hell of a fight. "I guess you guys are right, haha!" He laughed as he exposed his sharp teeth.

Mina stepped back and looked at his hair, going around him in circles, slowly making the red haired boy panic more and more the longer she took.

"Hm."

"W-what, does it look bad?!" Eijirou began to panic as he tried to style it back up.

"Nah." Mina grabbed his arm and pulled it away from his hair, "I actually think it looks pretty cool that way! I mean, before, I'll be perfectly honest, you didn't look very… how do I put this, approachable?"

"Ouch."

"I'll have to agree with Mina here," Izuku stepped closer to them, "I think I said it before, but it suits you!" The red haired boy thought back to his little hang out with Izuku, thinking about his heartfelt talk with him.

He couldn't help but blush at all of these compliments he was getting about his regular hair, he really oughta just let it be natural more, eh? "T-thanks! I'll consider just letting it stay like this instead of wasting a fortune on hair gel every month, heh."

Sharing a quick laugh over the fortune comment, they began to walk back to the stands, before being intercepted by Bakugo.

"Oh, so this is where you were." He said, glaring Eijirou down.

"Yeah? Why?"

"I-" Before he could even say a word Mina got in front of Eijirou, probably preparing herself to verbally defend him, "Chill, Racoon Eyes. I ain't here to insult your best friend or whatever." She glared him down for a few moments before stepping aside with a quiet "hmph."

"Look, I'm going to be brief. I challenged you, and you completed that challenge, as much as I hate to admit it." He grabbed his stomach as he said this, wincing. Seems like Eijirou's punch had left a mark. "So, you're pretty damn strong… Kirishima."

Eijirou was slightly taken aback by this, before grinning a toothy smile from ear to ear, puffing his chest out, "Heck yeah I did! And just you prepare yourself Bakugo! Next time, I'll come out on top, you'll see!"

"Don't push it! You're still part of Deku's little group, and I don't want anything to do with that!" Bakugo spat out before turning around and power walking away, "Go to hell will you!" Unbeknownst to the three, he walked away with a smirk on his face. Seems like Eijirou had earned a bit of his respect, just a bit.

"You know what I just realized?" Mina suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"We all lost in the second round."

"Huh." Izuku made a perplexed face, "I mean, yeah, why?"

"Then we're the 'One Round Wonders'!" She exclaimed loudly, grinning proudly, pulling both of the boys into a side hug.

"I-I guess we are, huh!" Izuku stammered as his face turned red.

"That name… has certain implications, but I like where your mind's at Mina!" Eijirou laughed. The three of them went back to the stands cheerily, chatting away without a care in the world. The pink girl had a certain way of cheering them both up, maybe due to how ridiculous some of her ideas were.

Walking back to the stands as Iida and Todoroki's match was about to take place, Sero looked at Eijirou, "Dude! You're fine! Whew, was kinda worried!" He got up, walking over to him, "You put on one hell of a show out there! Man, and I thought you'd end up like me… but you were pretty great! Actually gave Bakugo a run for his money! Way to show off!"

Eijirou scratched the back of his head, "I didn't do anything special man, just did what I thought would work."

"Oh and uh, what's with the hair?"

Eijirou paused, before finally giving an answer, "It's how I look naturally…"

"It suits ya! Now come on, we're gonna miss their fight." Sero said as he sat back down, patting the seats beside him.

* * *

The rest of the event went on without many problems, save for the last fight, but that was mostly one sided. Still, nothing too out of the ordinary. However, upon hearing that they had two days off, the moment class ended, Mina jumped up from her seat.

"Kiri! Midori! Since we have two days off… do you two wanna hang out? We could hit the arcades, watch a movie, go to the park, do all sorts of stuff!"

"Yeah! What do ya say Midoriya!" Eijirou gave Izuku a light punch to the arm, grinning.

"I, uh, don't think I'll be able to go, Mina." Izuku stammered out, slightly embarrassed.

Mina's expression immediately shifted from excitement to disappointment and sadness, "Huh? Why not?"

"I'm… pretty sure after today, my mom won't let me get 5 feet away from her after today, heh."

Mina pouted as Eijirou put a hand on his shoulder, "It's cool man, totally get it. Plus, with your… uh, everything, I think it's better if you rest. Preeeetty sure Recovery Girl would want that. Don't worry, I'll get'cha a souvenir!"

"Thanks! Speaking of Recovery Girl though, I have to see her… she needs to give me one last dosage of healing before I head home. Catch you two later!" Izuku waved them goodbye as he got up and walked to the nurse's office.

The Horn Buddies walked down the hall, Mina slumping her shoulders in an almost comical fashion, "Aw man… I was looking forward to the three of us hanging out again! It was so fun last time…"

"Yeah, we did, didn't we." Eijirou gave the pink girl a warm smile, "But I'm sure we'll get to go out all together again soon! Don't you worry!"

"Yuhuh! And when we do, it's gonna be the best hang out ever, just you wait and see!" Mina pumped her fists up in the air, "But our little adventure will be fun on it's own right too, Kiri! Don't you worry about it!"

"I'm sure it will, looking forward to it!"

Mina looked at her phone, "Oh shoot! Class ended later than I thought! Gotta catch my train, see ya Kiri!"

"See ya!" With that, they both waved each other their farewells. Eijirou, as he walked out, stopped to look at his reflection on the window. Looking at it made him think of how he was not long ago, making him mess with it, but at the same time... maybe looking like his old self wasn't so bad.

With his friend's words fresh in his mind, he took his hands off his hair. Maybe he had to let go of some things, didn't he? Besides, from what he gathered, he didn't need to look flashy to draw attention. He needed to _be_ flashy.


	9. Horn Buddies

"Ya done dolling yourself up? I gotta use the bathroom."

Hanko stood outside their shared bathroom, annoyed at how long her sister was taking. Sure, she could just go to the guest bathroom, but that was too much effort for her, and sure, she had teased Mina, telling her that she was going on a date, but she didn't expect her to, y'know, _actually prepare herself as if it was one._

"I ain't gonna wait much longer pipsqueak! I'm gonna drill a hole into your Xenomorph Queen toy if you don't come out in a minute!"

"Oioioi! I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez!" Mina exited the bathroom, sporting a black t-shirt that said 'ACID' on the front, short gray jeans and pink stockings with a black liquid-like pattern on them, she had small purple freckles she normally hid with makeup. "How do I look? Decided to go with just a little makeup this time."

"Like you're going out on a date." Mina punched Hanko lightly in the arm, earning a laugh from her, "Seriously now, you look good, don't worry. I'm still confused as to why you hide your freckles but I won't judge. Now, please move."

"Oh, uh, right, sorry."

Mina stumbled out of their bedroom and sneaked out of the hallway, successfully avoiding the gaze of her father, instead being greeted by a medium height woman, red wavy hair, average to slightly more built physique, black sclera and amber orange eyes.

That was Kōko Ashido, mother of Mina and Hanko. Cheerful, energetic,emotional and a bit of an airhead sometimes, she was easily what Mina took the most after, at least in personality. Always bringing up the mood of the house, while somehow overwhelming everyone at the same time. They were glad to have her as part of the family, even if it meant she would occasionally overstep her boundaries.

"Hi Pinky~!" Kōko said in her cheery demeanor, approaching Mina until she was almost right up to her. Unlike others around the house, who would sometimes use the nickname as a way to tease Mina, she used it affectionately, "Oh my, someone's ready for a day out. I haven't even heard about this at all! Who is it, a boy, a girl?"

"M-mom! C'mon, back off a bit… a-and does it matter if it's a boy or a girl?" Kōko was one of the few people who could make Mina stutter, not out of embarrassment, but out of sheer shock.

"Oh, sorry!" Kōko stepped away from the pink girl, "And I suppose not dear, you have mentioned interest in both before, I was just curious, sorry~! I'll leave you to it then, you have everything you need?"

"Wallet, house keys, money, yeah, I'm all set mom!"

"Alrighty then!" Kōko gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek, "Try not to be out for too long, alright?"

"Heh, I won't! Bye mom!"

* * *

Mina sat at a bench next to the local movie theater, kicking her legs up and down slowly. It was 4:50 PM, and she'd planned to go to the movies with Eijirou at 5:00 PM. She sighed, throwing her head back. _"Maybe something came up and he won't make it. Man… I was looking forward to seeing this one too-_

Her line of thought was interrupted by Eijirou himself, wearing an orange shirt with gold chains drawn all over it and white shorts, running like a mad man towards the bench, stopping just short of it, out of breath and sweating like hell itself was expelling it's heat onto him.

"Huff… Huff… Sorry… to keep you waiting Mina…"

"Woah woah! Slow down, breathe dude. We've still got 10 minutes before the movie actually starts. Just, relax okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, alright." Eijirou walked forward, throwing himself onto the bench and taking a long breath.

"What happened? Thought you would be the type to arrive on time."

Eijirou exhaled, finally calmed down, "Kei thought it'd be funny to turn off my alarm for four pm. She was the only one laughing."

Mina couldn't help but giggle, "C'mon Kiri! You should have known she'd try something like that, you've lived with her your whole life!"

"Yeah yeah…" Eijirou scratched the back of his head, making Mina notice something she hadn't before. His hair was tied in a small ponytail by a purple hair tie, just big enough to make itself known, but not stand out too much.

"Woah, that looks pretty good!"

Eijirou processed that for a moment, "O-oh, this? Yeah, uh, coming here in a rush didn't allow me to fix my hair with gel or to just brush it, it was either this or the pink cap Kei has. Glad to know it looks okay!"

Mina got up, "Yup yup! We should get going now if we want to actually have time to get some snacks!"

Eijirou practically jumped from his seat, a left over surge of energy in him, startling Mina, "Right! Let's go!"

The movie itself wasn't anything special for Mina, even with her excitement from all the trailers she'd gotten, the experience itself was rather average, so much so she was almost nodding off. She was only woken up by the fact that two large, shirtless Yakuza started beating up one another in the movie.

Looking to her side, expecting to see Eijirou nodding off as well, she instead found him literally at the edge of his seat. _"Even if it isn't my kinda thing, seeing him act this way towards something is… well, adorable."_ Mina thought. He got excited about a lot of things, but this genuine feeling she got from him at that moment just made her feel warm inside.

She snapped out of her small trance when she realized what she was thinking. The same feeling she had when she saw Izuku giving his all against Todoroki, proving just how far he could go, but these two situations were completely different… So why was she feeling this way?

" _Maybe I… Nah, couldn't be. I mean, just because I like hanging out with them, talking to them, just being with them, Midori's dorky but determined personality, Kiri's passionate soul, their will to keep going, despite what life throws at them…"_ She paused. _"Oh gosh dang it."_

Mina's face began to fill up with a magenta tint. She certainly had expected to get a crush on _someone_ , sure, but the fact she got it on two people, and the fact she hadn't realized it sooner made her kick herself out of frustration.

She calmed down, looking at Eijirou once more. He looked as if he was about to shout something because of the movie, grinning like an idiot.

Mina smiled softly at that sight, even if it had taken her a bit to realize her feelings, she might as well appreciate this now. Sneakily putting her hand on top of his, she rested her head on his shoulder. The fact he didn't say anything either meant that the movie had captivated him so much he didn't even realize, or he didn't mind.

Either way, she was happy.

* * *

"Man, that fight between Kazuma and Goro was so good! I was so hyped!" Eijirou gushed.

Mina giggled, "I noticed, you were quite literally at the edge of your seat Kiri!"

"Can you blame me?! That was a clash of wills and ideologies, an all out battle between two men until one dropped! And the ending brought me to tears, I loved the movie!"

Mina smiled softly as her friend excitingly recalled the movie, then grinned, "I liked it too! Coming here with you made it all the better though!" A small lie, but she really did enjoy spending time with him.

"Aw, feeling's mutual." Eijirou grinned flustered, "Say, why don't we head to a Karaoke bar now? I'm really fired up after that movie, gotta burn some of that energy!"

Mina's expression shifted from a smile to concern and thought, _"Oh man, karaoke… I'm not a very good singer, but Kiris gonna want me to sing…"_ She glanced at her partner, she could practically feel the excitement and passion burning from him. _"Aw what the heck. What kinda friend would I be to turn it down!"_

"Yeah! Let's see if mister manly can sing at all!"

"I'll have you know that 'mister manly' here has experience singing! I wanna know if _Pinky_ has what it takes to outperform me!"

"Oh you're on!"

Both shared a quick laugh and walked towards the nearest Karaoke bar, chatting along the way.

"Oh man, I wish Midoriya was here! He's probably terribad at singing, it'd be hilarious! And kind of adorable…" Eijirou muttered that last part, hoping Mina wouldn't hear it.

"Terribad? What does that even mean?" Mina giggled. "But hey, Midori could be great at singing, you don't know!"

Eijirou laughed with her, before glancing at her cheeks. "Hey. Looks like I'm not the only one sporting a new look!"

"Eh?" It took a moment for her to realize what he meant, quickly turning her head away when she realized what he meant, "Oh, uh, yeah. Wasn't feeling like hiding it today."

"Why hide it at all?"

"Why gel up your hair?"

"Point taken. But I think they look cute on you!" Eijirou almost froze in his tracks when he realized what he said, "B-but I'm not trying to come onto you if that's what you took it as!"

"...Thanks." Mina said under her breath, looking away from the sharp toothed boy while smiling ear to ear.

Because of this, the rest of the walk had an awkward atmosphere to it. Despite Mina's interest in romance, when it came down to actually flirting or being flirted on (even if accidentally), she still ended up only a few steps better than Izuku himself.

Arriving to the entrance of the Karaoke Bar, their silence was broken by three familiar figures. Denki, Kyouka and Momo had just about arrived as well, noticing the two friends as well.

"Yaoyorozu! Kaminari! Jirou! Didn't expect to see you three here!" Eijirou commented excitedly, jogging over to them.

"Kirishima, dude!" Denki went over and gave him a handshake followed by a side hug, "What's up man? I was treating Yaomomo and Jirou to something, cause of the whole USJ thing, I owed them one for helping me, hah."

"Yo." Kyouka perked from behind Denki, "I told the dumbass he didn't have to do this, but he wouldn't listen."

"I personally don't mind it at all! I have always wanted to visit one of these with friends!" Momo chimed in, then looked at Mina, "By the way, Ashido, are we perhaps interrupting something?"

Mina stammered, "No! I mean- Of course not! The more the merrier, right Kiri!"

"Yeah! More people will be able to witness my badass singing!"

"Oh joy." Kyouka teased, laughing silently.

Entering the building and asking for a room for five, the group of friends entered their small booth. While the others took in the place and sat down on the couch, Eijirou had his sights on something far more important for him.

"Guys…" He said, drawing everyone's attention to him, "...They've got outfits! I'm up first, don't you dare touch the pad!"

He entered the changing room and came out in record time, dressed in full rocker get-up. "Now I'm ready! Gimme that!"

"Y'know, I thought I knew what to expect. Now I don't, heh." Kyouka remarked as she watched the red haired pick a song in a hurry.

"Yo… Kaminari." Denki perked up from his seat, "They've got a duet option for this one."

"Oh hell yeah! Which song is it!" Getting up, Denki inspected the pad himself, "...Let's do this."

Mere moments and an outfit change later, both were in complete rocker outfits, headbands to follow. As soon as the name "JUDGEMENT" flashed on the Karaoke screen, the three girls did not know what they were in for.

The song started with a guitar riff, extending itself for a few seconds before Eijirou began singing, a much deeper tone to his voice than usual, as soon as he finished the first verse, Denki continued, forming a true duet. The song continued, picking up more pace and tempo, making even Kyouka get into it, nodding her head along to it.

" **And that'll bring… Justice. JUSTICE!"** Both sang out at the same time as their song would soon finish.

By the time it did actually end, both were out of breath but grinning like mad men, Eijirou sat down next to Mina, letting out a huge sigh.

"Man, that felt good."

"Your singing was pretty great too Kiri! Really brought out the energy in the song!" Mina chimed in, smiling.

"Gotta admit, red and yellow, you two make a hell of a duet for these kinds of songs," Jirou chuckled, "but you'd probably suck at softer songs, Kirishima."

"Ouch. Them's the truth though, no objections there. So, who's next?"

"Why not Jirou? She has a lovely singing voice!" Momo suggested, causing Kyouka to whip around and almost hit Denki with her jacks.

"I-I-

"Jirou, you can sing?" Denki asked after dodging the headphone jacks.  
"...Y-yeah… but I'm not sure if I want to…" She looked at the floor, embarrassed.

Mina looked at her, pity for the punk girl. Despite her strong appearance, she could get flustered and intimidated easily when it came to things like this. _"Guess I can sympathize with that, Jirou."_ Mina thought to herself. Smiling, she got up.

"Alright then, to give you some more time to decide, I'll go next!" Mina said enthusiastically, picking up the tablet, taking it to the changing room to pick there.

" _You can do it Mina… for your friend!"_ Pumping herself up, she picked a song, put on a witch costume, and came out of the changing room, "You guys ready for this!?"

Eijirou pumped up his fists, "Heck yeah! Let's do this!"

What followed was singing of average quality at best, but the energy she put behind it, her cheerfulness and excitement all elevated it from "okay" to "great". The pink girl sang her heart out, grinning ear to ear the whole time.

Once the song was done, she threw herself on the sofa, sighing. "That was really fun! Even if my singing was pretty meh, I still had a lot of fun out there!"

Denki intervened, "Whaaa, nonsense! Sure, it couldn't possibly compare to our performance-" Kyouka whipped him with her jack, "OW- B-but it had it's own flavor to it, I liked it!"

Momo smiled, "Yeah, don't be discouraged Ashido, I'm sure if you practice, you'll be able to be great at it!"

"If you guys say so, I'll keep at it!" Mina's mood improved at their comments, but Eijirou remained silent, still smiling though. Maybe he wanted to say something in private? She shrugged that thought off for now, they had a full night of Karaoke ahead of them.

* * *

The group exited the building, stomachs full and energy drained, they all were ready to part ways.

"Well, I think Yaoyorozu wants to do a bit more shopping, so…" Denki gave Eijirou a fist bump, "See you two around, don't get lost!"

"That's my line! Hah, see you around!" Eijirou replied, walking off with Mina. There was a small silence between them, until he finally spoke up, "Y'know, your singing was pretty great."

"Huh?"

"I mean, yeah, it wasn't the best, but you don't sing a lot, do you?"

"Only when I'm showering, I guess."

"You should be proud then!" Eijirou grinned a sharp smile, "I've been practicing most of my life and you're almost at my level! You're a natural!"

"O-oh, thanks!" Mina was slightly taken aback by the comment, her heart still not quite ready for genuine comments that weren't related to her physique, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I… " A sweat ran down Eijirou's cheek, "...was a bit embarrassed to say it, heh."

The pinkette smiled softly as they sat on a bench. Both sat there quietly. But this time, there wasn't any awkwardness or tension. Just, relaxation. And they were glad for it. The wind blew through their hair, the sounds of the city slowly turning to white noise.

"Hey, Kiri?"

"Yeah?"

"Today was really fun. Thanks for that."

Eijirou grinned, "Couldn't have done it without ya Mina." He looked at the sky as the sunset gradient had begun to form, "We should do this more often when we can. Helps take the edge off."

"Yep. But next time, let's bring Midori with us!"

"Oh for sure! It would have been great to see him sing!"

"Yeah… but also because he needs it the most, I think."

"Hm? Whaddya mean?"

"He's just been under a lot of stress ever since the year started, y'know? I think he deserves to have some more fun."

"Ah, yeah," Eijirou smiled as he remembered his date with Izuku, "he does."

Both sat there quietly after that, only ever speaking again when it was time to say their farewells. Giving each other a quick hug, both went on their ways, satisfied, with their feelings blossoming a bit more by the day.


	10. Work Experience (1)

Izuku stared blankly at the ceiling, fumbling around with his now-in-cast right arm. He wanted to go out and hang out with Mina and Eijirou, but his mom, as expected, asked him to stay at home and rest. It wasn't an unreasonable request, heck, it wasn't even that specific event that was bothering him. It was the fact that Eijirou and Mina were out together without him.

It was weird. It filled him with both happiness and jealousy, for both of them. He didn't feel this way when Uraraka had told them she was going to go out with Iida right before the festival, so why did this bother him so much? It didn't even make sense, he was both happy and jealous of _both_ of them.

Ugh, feelings are too much for him to handle right now, broken arm and all. Snapping out of his train of thought with a phone message, he looked at the number. It was Eijirou, he had sent two messages.

"yo dude! you doing alright?" Followed by "thought id ask. just so you know, yesterday felt kinda empty without ya man. hope we can all hang out together next time!"

Izuku's heart jumped a bit as he read that. The fact he mattered to someone other than his mom still perplexed him.

Stopping that train of thought, he quickly replied, "Yeah, I'm alright Kiri. I'll try to make it next time, I promise!"

He got another message, this time from Mina. It read "look at what i got u from the karaoke bar"

Attached was a picture of dark green bunny ears, initially confused, Izuku replied with "Thanks? I think? But why bunny ears?"

"cause ur costume makes u look like a cute lil bunny"

Izuku's face flushed with red like never before, he was almost sure if his mom saw him now, she'd think he had some kind of sickness.

"That wasn't relly thee intention butthanks" He shakily replied. His typing had gone from regular to worse than Mina's. He could practically hear her laughing from her phone. He is a mess of a person.

"i meant it as a compliment you would be great with kids"

"Uh, thanks, I think?"

"im going to bed now, night midori." Izuku smiled softly at her reply and laid down his phone. Despite her teasing, she cared a lot. All of his friends did as a matter of fact, especially her and Eijirou.

He went to sleep thinking of both, smiling as he did so.

* * *

"It's time to come up with your hero names." Aizawa stated flatly as most of the class cheered. Well, most of them, except for Izuku (and Bakugo, but he's him.), "Before that, I would like to show all of you your Pro Hero Draft picks." As a hologram projected onto the blackboard, he sighed. "Usually, they're more spread out, but Bakugo and Todoroki ended up stealing the spotlight. If you have any complaints, take it to them, not me."

Mina examined the offers, looking for offers for her. Slowly, as she drifted her eyes below, she noticed her only above Sero, with 15 offers. She sighed, "Dang it. Guess I didn't get that much attention from the pros at all, huh."

"This is where Hero names come in. You'll be treated as a Hero in training, so pick something appropriate, or-

"YOU'LL END UP IN A HECK OF A LOTTA TROUBLE, YEAH!" Shouted Mic, cutting Aizawa off and nearly making everyone's ears ring. "'Cause baby, what you pick now could be what everyone sees you as forever, yeah! Take Aizawa here for example, I came up with his name way back in our first year, hasn't changed it since!"

"Knock it off. Anyway, it is as he said. There have even been cases of people coming up with a name in their youth and picking another, but being called by the former by the public. How you put yourself out there and what name you pick is what will, in the end, define you." Aizawa rolled out a sleeping bag, "Which is why Mic will be helping today. I'm no good at coming up with names. Try not to make too much of a scene, okay?"

Fifteen minutes later and Aoyama's embarrassment of a name being made into "Twinkling Star", Mina stepped up to the plate, proudly announcing her Hero Name. "My Hero Name is Alien Queen!"

"Oh yeah! That has a bite to it kiddo! But uh…" Mic pouted, "I'm pretty sure you'd get sued. Try going for a variation of that, but know I liked it!"

"Dang it…" Mina went to sit back down on her chair, passing by Izuku, "Hey hey, can I see what you've come up with so far?"

"Uh, I've only got Deku so far… I'm not so sure after that, to be honest…"

"But that's an insult, c'mon! Here, I'll even give you a Mina tip of the day: Pick something related to a bunny! You'll be a hit with kids!" Mina grinned as she sat back down in her seat, satisfied with her advice. _"...But what do I name myself… Moth Queen? Nah, that'd make Hanko way too full of herself… I got it!"_

After Tsuyu showed off the widely acclaimed 'Froppy', Mina dashed to the podium, "Acid Queen! How's that!"

"NICE!" Mic shouted, earning him a stare from Aizawa, "You went with a compromise that's still got a bite but ain't far off from the intended effect, a true pro name, kiddo!"

As the class went on with many widely acclaimed names, such as Ojiro's 'Wukong' (which only came about after Mic called 'TailMan' boring), Or Hagakure's 'Invisi Gal' (adjusted for 'copyright', according to Mic) , Izuku finally stepped up to the podium, being one of the very last ones to actually show off a name. He was visibly nervous, but at the same, he looked almost excited. Mixed emotions to the max.  
"This… isn't final, I think. But someone really dear to me helped me with it, so…" He turned the plaque over to the class, the words 'Emerald Hare' written on it in tidy handwriting. Mina grinned from ear to ear, proud and touched.

"Oooh, catchy! But tell me kiddo, why a hare?"

"Well, my costume ended up looking a bit like a bunny's ears… not my intention, but I'll stick with it for now."

"Ah, making gold out of coal! I like your stuff, 'Emerald Hare'!" Mic pointed to him proudly, "Now go sit down! We've still got a few to go!"

Once name choosing was over, the class went over who they were interning with. Mina pouted extra hard this time. "Man! No one I know really well drafted me! Bummer…"

"Sorry to hear, Ashido…" Uraraka put a hand on her shoulder, "Maybe you'll have more luck next year?"

"Maybe."

Eijirou peeked over her shoulder to her paper, eyes widening, "No way! Is that up and coming hero Miruko?! You got chosen by her?!"

"Eh?"

"You haven't heard? She's been climbing the ranks recently! She doesn't have any sidekicks at all, working solo most of the time, you really lucked out with her!"

"Really?" Mina smiled, "Do you think she really saw potential in me?"

"I mean…" Eijirou looked to the side, "Who wouldn't, you're pretty great at fighting."

"Aw, thanks Kiri!" Mina glanced over at Izuku, "What about you Midori? I saw you didn't get any offers, you doing alright?"

"-I have to research- Ah, M-Mina, sorry! I was thinking on how I was going to pick someone to intern under, heh… while I was pretty shaken at first, it's only to be expected." He put on a sad smile, "While I can use 3% pretty well, I still destroyed my body a lot… it's not like it was unexpected, it just hurt to actually see it."

Mina's expression shifted from happiness to comforting, "Well, I think you were pretty incredible. Those pros don't know what they're missing!" She paused, "Also… what did you mean by 'someone really dear' to you?" She asked, a teasing and knowing tone in her voice. She knew what he meant, but she wanted to hear him say it.

"...Y-you and Kirishima. You gave me the bunny idea and Kirishima's color coded name h-helped…" Izuku hid his face in his hands, "S-sorry if it was a creepy thing to say!"

Mina flicked him on the nose, "Nah, it's cool. It was actually pretty nice, especially since I didn't get many offers, it helped cheer me up!"

Mina gave the green boy a quick smile, before moving to chat with Ochako, Aizawa grumbled as he woke up, "Hm… Two things, first, you all have two days to turn your choices in, so be quick." He paused, slowly yawning, "Two, you'll be spending the week at your Hero of choice's agency, or, in case they don't have a room to accomodate you, a hotel nearby, so pack as necessary."

With a resounding 'Understood!', class resumed as normal.

* * *

Izuku and his friends walked alongside each other as Aizawa escorted them, each carrying a suitcase with their costumes and a backpack with varying scales of tackiness. Iida's and Ochako's were normal enough, even if the latter's was rather small, while Tokoyami's was a shade of black so dark that if you stare at it it'll stare back, Izuku with an All-Might themed one from his childhood, meaning it had seen wear and tear. Mina's and Eijirou's were both blindingly neon, her's being a lime green with white dots, while Eijirou's was a shade of red strong enough to reflect light off of it.

A bunch of kids with their own little quirks. And they liked it that way.

"Y'know, I hope Fourth Kind can teach me some moves! Even if… his moves probably… use four arms…" Eijirou paused, "...Dang it."

Ochako giggled, "Hey, if it doesn't work out, gunhead is always available!"

"I guess? He didn't really put in an offer for me though, so…"

"Ouch." Ochako's face slowly shifted into that of thinking, "...Wait, does that mean he only made an offer for me?"

"I think so."

The brunette pumped herself up, "That's awesome! I'm going to get real strong and kick Bakugo's butt thanks to him then!"

"I heard that round face!"

"Simmer down everyone…" Aizawa sighed, "From here on out, you'll be on your own, so be on your best behavior. Remember, use of hero costumes outside of patrol is strictly prohibited, and treat the hero you chose with utmost respect, am I clear?"

The class nodded and murmured in response, "Good. Now off you go."  
"Seems like we won't be seeing each other for a few days, huh Kiri?" Mina asked as she bumped shoulders with him.

"Yeah… but hey, we always have each other's numbers!"

"Yep!" Mina gave him a quick hug, "See you around then!" She rushed into the train, while Eijirou stalled for a few seconds.  
"Hey, Midoriya?"

"O-Oh! Sorry, I was just asking Iida something…" Izuku gave him a quick fist bump, "Be seeing you, Kirishima!"

"Feeling's mutual! Text me when you get there!"

And with that, the three split off, each going into their own internships. A slight heartache filled their hearts, but out of them, only Mina knew why.

* * *

A strong sense of tension filled the air as both Eijirou and TetsuTetsu walked into the room. He could feel his penetrating glare, even if he wasn't looking directly at him. As Fourth Kind explained what they were going to do, he was sure the steel fighter had some sort of problem with him.

"And that's what we'll be doing out on patrol today, am I clear?"

"Yes sir!" Both of them sounded out.

"Good. I'll be ready in a few, wait outside of my office."

Walking out of there, TetsuTetsu put a hand on Eijirou's shoulder, his forearm turning to steel. "Kirishima." He glared at him with an intensity to rival Bakugo's. "Why the heck are ya here?! You came here to humiliate me in front of him too?"

Eijirou reeled back, "Hey! He offered me a position, so I accepted! Besides, I didn't humiliate you dude! I just did what I had to do, it was a tournament!"

"You kiddin' me?! You swept the floor with me! My folks were so disappointed in me!"

"What do I have to do with that man? I thought you were cool, with us having similar quirks, I thought we could bros!"

"Psh, as if! I'll show you Red Riot, that Real Steel is way better than you!"

Eijirou smirked, "Oh yeah? You're on!"

Fourth Kind smiled from the other side of the door. _"I picked those two knowing Steel would go after Red in an instant. But if they can keep this rivalry at a reasonable level… then they'll motivate each other to new heights, I'm sure of it."_ He thought.

Stepping out of his office, "I thought I heard some yellin'! Were you two makin a ruckus out here?!"

"N-No sir!"

"Good. We're heading out now, don't you two go making this harder than it's gotta be!"

* * *

One patrol and several hits to the head later, Eijirou and Tetsu flopped onto the beds in the room they'd been given. "My back's killing me…" Eijirou whimpered out. "Who knew picking up trash all day could be so hard…"

"I know right… but I still picked up more trash than you did!"

"Yeah yeah…" Their conversation was interrupted as Fourth Kind slammed the door open, making Eijirou jump from his bed and TetsuTetsu harden in response to the sudden shock.

"Listen up you two! I know your schedules said you'd be working from 1 PM to 8, but this ain't work anymore!" He threw them both a pair of kimono pants, "This is training. Come into the basement wearing only that, boys. I'll teach ya how to fight properly."

Eijirou and TetsuTetsu simply sat there frozen as he left the room. Glancing at each other, they thought it better if they rushed there as soon as possible. Screw etiquette, they changed in front of each other as quick as they could and ran to the elevator.  
Arriving to the basement, they were met with tatami flooring and a traditional style room. Fourth Kind stood there, shirtless, back turned. On his back was the tattoo of an oni very much in the style of a _yakuza_ tattoo.

"So. You two are here. It's time to break you two into shape."

Eijirou and TetsuTetsu gulped. They knew this wasn't going to be an ordinary sparring session, and they were gonna pay for it.

"Come at me!" Fourth Kind shouted.

Hardening and becoming steel, both rushed at him. It was time to see just how good they actually were at busting some skulls, and see if they measured up to Fourth Kind's admirably high standards.


	11. Work Experience (2)

"ACK-"

As Fourth Kind grabbed Eijirou's arm as he was on the ground, he smirked. Despite both of their quirks being based off of durability, the two UA students had fallen to their mentor's superior skill and strength. TetsuTetsu was sitting on the corner, eye swelled up and blood dripping from his nose, which he was trying to contain with a tissue. Eijirou himself had multiple bruises and a cut above his eyebrow.

Fourth was doing a number on them, to say the least. And it was still the first round. This was going to be a long night. Letting go of the red haired boy, the large man shouted, "Alright you two, on your feet!" As they stood up, he crossed his arms, "As you two might have noticed, you didn't stand a lick of a chance against me. Ye might be thinking 'But how? My quirk makes me durable!' And I'll tell you what happened. You two aren't using it right!"

"Eh?" Both responded simultaneously.

"Listen. You can take hits like no one else can, right?" They nodded, "So… why the hell do you two even bother to put up your arms?!" Both just froze, muttering, "I get it, okay? It's scary, you could get hurt, etcetera. But if after you block the first hit, it doesn't hurt, or doesn't hurt enough to injure you… Why block at all? Why flinch? Your first reaction, right now? Is to flinch, block then harden. In those two previous actions, some civilian could be injured."

"But-

"Which is why you go straight to step 3! Don't flinch! Red, Steel, you two are immovable objects _and_ unstoppable forces! Act like it!" He looked over both of them, it was clear they were still a bit clueless. "Oh my goodness- Alright, here. Put 'em up Steel. Just hit me with a jab to the face, c'mon."

TetsuTetsu protested, "Sir, you could-

"Just do it damn it!" As he said that, the steel student hardened his entire body and threw a jab with all his might. As it was about to connect with Fourth Kind's nose, instead of dodging, the muscular hero threw his head at the punch. With it connecting, he shot an dual handed uppercut to TetsuTetsu's jaw, making him go flying.

"Alright, damn. When you actually do hit, you can pack a punch kiddo." He rubbed his nose, "Ya might have broken it. But forget that. Ya see what I did?"

TetsuTetsu got up, dazed, "Y-Yeah! You kept going instead of letting the punch get to you! That was awesome!"

Eijirou piped up, "Yeah yeah! I think I get what you mean now!"

"Good. But this doesn't mean get careless. If the opponent's strong enough to actually seriously hurt you, use your old strategy. Block them. Otherwise, yer gonna get an early grave." Wiping his nose from the blood that was leaking, he rotated his shoulder. "Now, come on. We still have 30 minutes left, make 'em count."

* * *

Hours earlier, Mina arrived at Miruko's office. It was…. surprisingly small. Rabbit ears stuck out of the roof, but it was at most a two floor building. The moment she walked in, she was greeted by a young tan woman, taller than her, but not by much, pink hair, almost flower like. The stitchery on her left side said "Haruka".

"Excuse me miss… Haruka, is Miruko in?"  
"Hm? Do you have an appointment?" The woman asked.

"Uh… Any 'Mina Ashido's in there?"

"Lemme see…" Haruka scrolled through the list, "A...A...A… Nope. Nothing. Sorry, but you have to make an appointment if you wanna talk to her, pinky."

"But she- Agh, forget it, it was probably a mistake." As Mina turned around to leave, Miruko suddenly hopped to above the front door's frame, cracking it, then jumped down, making Mina fall backwards and almost hit her head.

"There you are, Acid Queen! I was worried you'd never come!" The bunny woman said, grinning.

As Mina was still too stunned to speak, Haruka chimed in, "Rumi, you can't keep doing this. The door will break eventually."

"But it's fun!"

"And costly."

"Yeah yeah, anyway-" Rumi helped Mina up, "Ya ready for my internship?"

"I guess?"

"Good! Cause it's gonna be the most excruciating thing you've ever witnessed!" Rumi grabbed Mina by the wrist, dragging her upstairs, "See you in a bit Haru!"

"Try not to kill her."

Entering the top floor, Mina took in what she saw. It was basically one big room, with what she assumed was an off section for a bathroom. The rest though, doubled as a bedroom and workout stage, with two beds and the workout equipment at the other end.

Rumi put her hand on Mina's shoulder, "This is where you're gonna spend the rest of the week, get used to it."

Mina got excited, she was basically going to have a sleepover with a pro hero for an entire week! "Oh, okay! What do we do first-" She was interrupted by a tank top, gym bra and shorts being thrown at her.  
"Put these on." Rumi said as she herself changed into her own pair, simply removing her previous top and sweat pants and putting on a tank top. Mina would never admit it, but she had… stared while she did that. Quite a bit. Her toned body, her curvy figure and more chiseled face, her thighs, until- "Don't gawk, Queenie. It's rude. Now put those on."  
"R-right!" Changing behind the door they came through, she went back into the room, ready.

"Here's the deal, every day, we're gonna work out until 11 AM, lunch, then head out on patrol til' 5 PM. Any questions?"

"Yeah… It's currently 9 AM… Are we really about to workout for two hours?"

"Yep."  
"Oh."

What followed was unlike anything Mina had done before. Sure, she had been training all her life with her dad, who had a quirk like hers, but this was on a whole other level. She guessed Rumi's quirk let her go through more physical strain, but still…

An hour in and she was sweating buckets, laying down face up on the floor. Rumi had sweated a similar amount, but was still up for more.

Mina turned her head, partially to admire Rumi a bit more, and to ask a question, "Why'd you choose me, Miss Miruko?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, you had all those awesome choices, but you chose me. Why?"

"Well, kiddo. Two reasons." Rumi lifted up a finger, "One, because the guy you fought, Dark Bird or whatever, was taken in by Hawks, and I wanna stick it to him."

"Tokoyami was chosen by the number 3 hero?! And…" She pouted, "You chose me over a petty condition?"

"I guess? But also!" She smugly lifted up the second finger, "'cause I saw your potential! You're gonna be great, I know it!"

Mina got quite flustered, but smiled weakly, "Thanks, Miss Miruko!"

"Anyway, that's the first half…" Mina shuddered, "Now, the second half! Quirk training!"

… "Eh?"

"What, you think we're gonna work on just physique? C'mon, we gotta work on that quirk of yours too!"

"Oookay… But I didn't think someone like you needed quirk training."

"Ya kiddin' me? My quirk used to suck major balls! I honed it to the death machine it is today!"

"...Huh."

"Now kid, show me your quirk." Mina created a quick puddle of acid, not strong enough to melt through the floor, but enough to mark it. "Hm… You can throw that right?"  
"Pretty far, I think."

"Hm… anything else you can do to it?"  
"Well…" Mina made another puddle of acid, but instead of splattering, it stayed together. "I can make it thicker."

"Hm… I got it! Make it as thick as you can, but not that strong!"

"Okay?" Doing exactly that, it fell to the ground, staying together like rubber gel, but not burning.

"Can you make it stick?"

"Yeah!" Doing that, it stuck to her hand, "Now wha-" Before she could finish her sentence, Rumi landed a punch right on the acid gel. It stung a bit, but it didn't hurt as much as it should have.

"...Huh. Acid Padding."  
"Betcha never thought of that, eh?"

By the end of the training session, Mina was exhausted and just wanted to eat something. "Alright, break time. Go shower and change into your Hero costume, lunch's in the fridge." Rumi grabbed her costume and went into one of the showers. Mina couldn't help but wonder if her mentor had tried teaching someone. Ever. Because she was pretty sure she shouldn't have been pushed that hard.

Either way, she took a quick shower just to get rid of the sweat and changed into her costume. Rumi had already changed into her trademark costume, which the pink girl had to admit made her feel flustered just looking at it.

Whipping her head around, Rumi spoke, "Alright then Acid Queen, I think a sandwich will do for lunch for no-" She interrupted herself as she got a good look at Mina's costume, "Good lord who designed that thing."

"Um-

"Doesn't matter." Rumi put a hand on Mina's shoulder, making her freeze up slightly, before sighing. "Look, The overall concept's good, but… well, for starters, do you use pasties or something of the sort?"

"Not really, why?"  
"Cause that-" She pointed to Mina's costume's chest area, "-is being held by faith alone. So, fix that…" Suddenly, Rumi had a pen and notebook, scribbling on it. It reminded Mina of Izuku.

"And the colors, good lord the colors. Take a good look at my costume, pinky. It's mostly monochromatic, ain't it? But yours is all over the place! Having bright colors can be good, but-" Rumi grabbed a light green pen and a violet red one, "-Ya gotta have at least _some_ complimentary colors."

She ripped the page off of her notebook, giving it to Mina. It was a crudely drawn version of her costume, with a spring green base and bright violet red highlights. The chest area had received proper straps, and her vest/boots were changed from yellow to a pastel pink.

"Woah…"

Rumi smirked, "Just so you don't have to walk around with that hideous thing, I'm sending it in as a request free of charge. Now come on, we got patrolling to do."

* * *

The next morning, at Gran Torino's place, his foot was planted firmly in between Izuku's eyes, sending him flying. "C'mon kid, this can't be your limit, right?" Landing in front of the now upside down student, he frowned, "What did you say your limit was? 3%? Even with Full Cowl, you won't land a hit on me with that kind of output."  
The senior man went in for one more kick, but Izuku just barely rolled away from it. Jumping to the middle of the room, he grabbed the table and threw it at Torino. _"I need time to raise my percent… but I'll only be able to distract him for a short period with that…"_

Throwing caution to the wind, the green haired student raised his output quickly, jumping from 3 to 5.

" _N-No… I can do better!"_ Torino had already thrown the table away from him when Izuku raised the output. Just inches away from connecting with Izuku's face one more time, Torino's leg was swiped away. The strong air current created by the swipe was enough to push him back.

Making an emergency landing on his back, Torino got up and looked at his student. "Gran Torino… this is my… limit!" Lightning crackled across the walls and floor, tinging it ever so slightly. Izuku's hair flowed upwards slowly, "Seven Percent!"

* * *

As Mina distracted a low level villain, Rumi jumped in and hit their chest, knocking them into the ground and knocking them out cold. She stood there, face slightly annoyed. As she tied up the villain, Mina spoke up.

"Miss Miruko-  
"Just Miruko is fine, Pinky."

"Miruko, why don't you take in sidekicks more? I mean, you seem to be able to work with me pretty well."

Rumi chuckled, "That you got right, but if I had to level with you?" She stretched her arms, "It ain't as fun or satisfying as taking down a villain by yourself."

"Ah, so you feel better just doing it by yourself?"

"Yeah. 'sides, with a sidekick, they can always mess up." Rumi smirked and pointed to herself, "Not me though! When I'm alone, I can just do my thing!"

"So why take me in then? If it isn't fun for you, I guess."

"Well… I just saw a lot of my younger days in ya, Pinky."  
"Aw, thanks!"

"That ain't a compliment kid," Rumi laughed, "I was piss poor back in the day!"  
"Hey! That's mean! I have good control over my quirk!"

"Yeah, yeah." Rumi paused as soon as she saw a four armed gentleman appear in her vision, alongside a red haired boy and silver haired boy. "Well, I'll be damned!"

"Huh? Is that…"

"Hetsu, you prick, how are ya?!" Rumi ran up to Fourth Kind, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

Mina caught up quickly, bouncing on her feet, "Kiri! TetsuTetsu!"

The two students turned their heads slowly, their tired eyes revealing themselves. "Oh jeez, you two alright."  
"They'll be fine. I just roughed 'em up a bit." Fourth Kind, also known as Hetsu, rubbed his fingers across the bridge of his nose, "Anyway… Hello, Usagiyama."

"Oh, cut it out with that formal crap! Just Rumi is fine!"  
"Yeah… yeah…"

As the two adults bickered, TetsuTetsu and Eijirou took the opportunity to rest. "My god! I thought I was never going to get to rest!" Eijirou exclaimed, throwing his head back.

"I think my arm is still dislocated from yesterday…" Tetsu whined.

"Woah woah woah, what happened?"

"Words cannot describe the pain we went through." Tetsu said in a low tone, hanging his head low.

"Numbers can. 11."

"That bad huh?" Mina put on a face of sympathy, putting her hand on Eijirou's shoulder, "Well, I'm just glad we got to see each other a bit sooner than expected!"

The red haired boy snapped out of his brooding momentarily, face turning red. "Y-yeah! Wouldn't it be funny now if Midoriya appeared?"

"It would be, wouldn't it? But I don't even know which agency he chose, he could be halfway across the country for all I know."

"True."

Hetsu finally turned away from his conversation. "Hey, you two, no slacking! This park needs to be so clean that I'll be able to see your ugly mugs reflected on the floor!"  
"YES SIR!" Both responded in unison, "Sorry Mina, gotta bail. See you around!" Giving the pinkette a quick hand shake and half hug, he resumed his routine of trash picking.

"Same to you!" Running back to Rumi, who was still laughing, Mina tilted her head, "Miruko, you know Fourth Kind?"  
"Heh, we go way back. He was my mentor for a bit!" Mina's jaw dropped, "Yes, he is _that_ old. Doesn't look a day over 35 I'd say!"

"Jeez… That's kind of impressive actually. He's lower in the ranks than you, isn't he?"

"He ain't that popular, and never really cared for popularity in the first place. Just cares about doing a job well done." She smiled softly, as if recalling fond memories, "He's rough around the edges, but inside, he's a good guy through and through."

"Huh."  
"What?"  
"I didn't think you were capable of smiling like that!" Mina laughed as Miruko smirked and looked to the side.

"Touché kiddo. Touché." Rumi's phone vibrated in her stocking's pocket, picking it up, she smiled. "Looks like your touched up costume's arrived! Those guys at the support department work fast!"

"Really?! Let's go pick it up now!"

Rumi chuckled, "Hah, alright, alright. I swear, it's like you're 12 years old sometimes."


	12. End Of The Work Experience

"It stings…" Eijirou whined as he held up the ice pack to his forehead. His internship with Fourth Kind, also known as Hetsu, had been successful so far. For the most part anyway. On his third day and he already had gotten a few new moves to show off.

"Hmph. I suppose that's enough for today. Get yourselves cleaned up and put on your hero costumes, we'll be heading out for one last-" Hetsu's phone ringed, "Ugh, I swear if it's Rumi again… This is Fourth Kind. Wait, what…? Got it. I'll be right there." He ended the call.

"Is everything alright, Kind?" Tetsu asked, "That sounded important!"

"It is. Listen very carefully to what I'm about to say. You two are not to leave this office under any circumstances." They both tilted their heads, "Some kind of creatures are attacking Hosu, and they requested backup. Don't break anything while I'm gone." And so, he left.

To say Eijirou was confused and worried was an understatement, he wanted to do something, but orders were orders. Taking a shower and laying down on his bed, he sent Mina and Izuku a quick "everything okay?" and waited.

As he started into the ceiling, Tetsu spoke, "Hey, Kirishima. I know I'm usually like, super loud and brash but uh… I just wanted to say, sorry for the whole beef I had with ya dude! It was super immature and just, bad, y'know?"

Eijirou smiled, "Yeah, no worries man." He looked at Tetsu, extending his fist and hardening it, "Quirk Bros?"

Tetsu grinned, extending his own hand, making it into steel and fist bumping Eijirou. This little moment was cut short by Eijirou's phone. Mina had replied.  
"yea

miruko left me in her office tho"

"same here, fourth kind just kinda dipped"

"Hey, Kirishima… can you turn on the tv real quick?" Tetsu looked at his phone in terror, "I need to check something."  
"Uh… sure?" He turned on their room's tv, only to see a live broadcast. Multiple Nomus, rampaging Hosu. "No… No way! All-Might beat it last time, now there's more?!"  
"A-apparently…"

Eijirou's phone buzzed once again. It was Izuku. It said nothing, all it was, was a location. Hosu. He froze. His head was spinning as he took in the fact that Izuku could be in serious danger, could be against multiple of the things that almost took down All-Might, he could be-

"Snap out of it man!" Tetsu shouted, "You're sweating like crazy, breathin' heavy… what's up?"

Recomposing himself, he sent the text to his classmates whose numbers he had, with the caption: "Midoriya sent me this, I'm worried."

Immediate reply from Mina:

"y are u worried?"

"haven't you seen te news?" His fingers shook slightly, making typing harder.

"no

oh no

d

do you think hes gonna be ok"

"not sure. you doing okay?"

"yeah, just

worried now"

"the pros are there

he's gonna be ok"

That's what Eijirou told himself anyway. Izuku was strong, he was smart, no one would hurt someone as kind, as understanding, as cool as him, right? He felt his chest tighten. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, but he wanted it to end.

Hetsu's secretary came into their room, "Fourth Kind just sent me a message. Said for you two to sleep a bit earlier. Said it'll help calm you down."  
"G-guess he figured we'd check the news, h-huh…" Eijirou muttered out.  
"Got it, th-thanks." Tetsu answered, still shaken. They both tried their best to sleep, even with their anxious state.

* * *

The next morning came, both the boys had barely slept a wink. As they groaned and headed to the changing room to change into their Hero Costumes, they were stopped by Hetsu.

"Mister Fourth Kind! You're back!" Tetsu exclaimed, grinning, "I thought you had been injured!"

"It takes more than a few beasts to take me down." He took off his vest, showing his bruised arms, a few bandages running along it, his right arm specifically being entirely bandaged, "But they did do a good number on me. I might have to cut your training short."

"Aw man…" Tetsu whined.  
"I mean, that's fine, sir Fourth Kind! I don't want you to exert yourself too much!" Eijirou replied, bumping his fists together, "Besides, I wanna make your style my own from now on! I'll grow in my own way!"

"Heh." Hetsu smirked, "Seems like I did teach you two enough. Keep it up, Red and Steel."  
"Yes sir!"  
"Now get changed! Just because I'm wounded doesn't mean we aren't cleaning the streets! Today is gonna be extra busy because of yesterday, so bring on your A game!"

The boys slumped their shoulders, "Yes sir…"

* * *

Similarly, on another part of Japan, Mina hugged Rumi, "I was so worried, miss Miruko!"  
"C'mon kiddo, hugs aren't good for my image." Rumi pulled away, chuckling, "But I appreciate the sentiment."

"You look… surprisingly unscathed."

"What, did you think some mindless monsters could beat _me_ up? Acid Queen, ya got a ways to go before you truly see what I'm about in that case!"

"I know what you're about!" Mina giggled, "But not even All-Might could escape unscathed from those things!"

"Well…"

" _Rumi, behind you!" Hetsu shouted, before pushing Rumi away from the Nomu's attack, instead his top set of arms taking the blow in full, sending him flying across the street._

"Maybe I'm just better than even All-Might himself!"

"Yeah, right."

"Are ya doubtin' me, girl?" A malicious smirk grew on Rumi's face, "Just for that, drop and give me fifty!"

"W-wait, I'm sorry!"

Both of the students had calmed down since yesterday, seeing the news broadcast showing their friends mostly safe. She would try to face time with him as soon as she could, but she had just gotten a message from him that said "Something came up, can we facetime later?"

She was a bit upset, but mostly glad he was safe. Sure, her crush on him didn't help with her anxiety, but above being her crush, he was her friend, one of her closest ones, a classmate she could just casually hang out with. And he had been in the middle of something like the Hosu event.

To say she didn't envy him was an understatement.

30 minutes and a painful punishment from Rumi, Mina got a facetime request from Izuku. Sitting down on her bed and fixing up what she could of her hair, she answered the call.

"Hey Midori!"

"H-hey! Sorry I couldn't answer earlier, had to talk to the police, regular procedure I think?"

"It's cool! You doin' alright?"

"A bit shaken, but mostly, yeah."  
She could hear what seemed like Shoto talking in the background, "Hey, Midoriya?"

"Oh, just a sec-! Yeah Todoroki?"

"Who are you talking to?"

"O-oh, it's just Mina! She was worried because of yesterday."

"Ah. I see." He paused, "So wait, you _aren't_ dating Kirishima? You're dating her?"

Mina struggled to not burst out in laughter as she could feel Izuku just shut down. She did wish it was true, at least half of that statement, so it did tug on her a bit, but she shrugged it off.

Finally recovering from his BSoD, Izuku stuttered out, "W-what g-gives you that i-idea Todoroki?!"

"Well, you three seem to care a lot about each other, and hang out a lot too, more than with anyone else, so I thought something was going on between two of you."

"W-well-

"Todoroki, please." Iida intervened, "You are making Midoriya very anxious. I understand your curiosity, but refrain from prodding any further."  
"Right. Sorry."

"I-it's fine…" He looked back at his phone, "Sorry about that Mina…"

Mina finally let out a breath of relief as any laughter she had went away, "It's cool! Hope hospital life ain't too hard for ya though! I mean, if Todo's that brutal…"

"Come on… Anyway, do you want to add Kiri into the facetime? I think he'd enjoy it."

"Oh I wanted to, but as it turns out, Fourth Kind didn't want to rest, not even for a day!"

"That's harsh…"

"I know right?!" Mina heard something fall down, followed by continuous swearing, "Ah geez, I think Miruko dropped something on her foot again- I'll call you back, bye Izu!"

"Bye!" And just like that, she hung up.

* * *

As Izuku held the phone and Shoto and Iida argued about 'being more socially sensitive', he thought about what his double colored friend had said. He really thought him and Kirishima were dating? That could never happen, both of them were just good friends- but then he thought he was dating Mina- Why was he like this?!

And why did the thought of dating them make his heart beat harder than before? Just stop Izuku. They're too good for you anyway.

Setting down his phone, he took a deep breath. Maybe he should focus on something else for now.

" _Thinking about it… even though One For All increases my speed, I haven't been using that… I need to get better at dodging!"_ He thought, _"Right… after I get out of the hospital."_

A few days passed, and he was right back up and running, walking to school. Taking a longer but quieter route this time, to avoid any unwanted press bumping into him and harassing him. Finally arriving to class later than usual, he was immediately tackled by a pink blur, almost falling to the ground were it not for a door to lend a hand.

"W-woah, Mina, what's up?!" He asked as the pink girl hugged him, he would be embarrassed but he was mostly concerned, did something happen?

"You didn't tell me you three had to fight the Hero Killer!"

"A-ah, yeah… I couldn't really talk about that."

"You could have died!" She hugged him tighter, he was pretty sure she was crushing him. "I'm glad Endeavor was there to help, but at least tell us what happened!"

"I-I'd like to breathe, Mina…" He looked at Eijirou, eyes pleading, "A little help?"

"Sorry man, she's only gonna let go once class starts, pretty sure you're stuck like this for the rest of the day."

"He's right!" Mina pouted playfully as she only hugged his arm this time, "Because you didn't tell us, _and_ you almost got yourself killed, we're doing this for the rest of the day!"

Izuku's face was filled red, a good part of the class had been staring, but they quickly went back to minding their own business.

"Oh, hey Deku!" Uraraka greeted as she walked into class, giving him a bright smile, "Glad to see you're okay! I just met Iida in the hallway, he's clearing some things up with his hero name registry."

"Huh, I was about to ask where he was." Eijirou replied, "Guess that clears that up."

Iida rushed in, "Everyone sit down! Mister Aizawa is almost here!"

"Can-can you let go now?"

"Awww. Fine." Mina frowned, "Only because class is starting!"

* * *

"Ah… Ah…" Both Izuku and Sero were breathing rapidly as All-Might did some calculations in his head, reviewing the footage.

"I have to say, Young Midoriya and Sero! Try as I might, I don't think I could find who is the winner here, this is a ridiculously close tie!"

"I… see…" Sero said, "Even in my field of expertise, I still am just average…"

"Being tied with someone with a quirk that enhances their physical capabilities is not bad, Young Sero! As both of you did reach me in time to rescue me, both of you win!

Also, if you do not mind me asking, young Midoriya…"

"Yeah?"

"Why is Young Ashido clinging so closely to you?"

The moment the test ended, she had gone back to clinging to her friend, "Because he almost died and he didn't tell me!"

"Y-yeah, that… Did you get a new costume Mina?"

"Yep!"

"I… see… Well, Young Ashido, if you could, please give him some time after class? I simply need to talk to him to see if there's any psychological damage from such a traumatic experience."

"Hm, sounds right. Ok!"

Sero pushed Izuku's shoulder, "Didn't take ya for a ladies man, heh."

"I-it's not like that!"

"Suuuure, and I'm the queen of england."

"You don't believe me do you?"

"Nope! But my lips are sealed." He gave a sly grin, "I gotcha."

* * *

After Izuku exitted the "break room" alongside Toshinori, still in a small daze from All-Might's talk, Mina and Eijirou got up, the former clinging onto him once more; which he did appreciate after getting such a major bomb dropped on him.

"Geez, you're quicker and quicker each time- Hey, who are you?" Eijirou asked, facing the skeleton form Toshinori.

"Ah, I'm… the therapist the school hired to deal with traumatic events, yes." He replied, _"Smooth! He's going to believe that for sure!"_

"But I thought Hound Dog did that?"

"W-well, he isn't always available, so they contacted me. I'm not a pro hero, so I'm not as busy as he is."

"Ah, make sense."

"Ashido… are you sure holding Midoriya so closely to you is going to accomplish anything?" The skeleton faced man asked, concerned.

"Probably not! But it makes me feel better!"

"Well, if it does, who am I to judge… I will see you kids later, have a good week."

"See you, mister… Um-  
"Toshinori!"

"-Toshinori!"

After he left, Izuku and his two friends walked alongside one another, going to a nearby park and sitting down on a bench. While they should have gone straight for the station, the three had decided to just take it easy for a while.

Mina was still clinging onto Izuku, but softly now, while Eijirou laid his head back, with Izuku simply laying his head on his shoulder.

"This… is nice." The green haired boy smiled softly as he closed his eyes, taking in the soft breeze of the afternoon, "After everything, I think I needed this."

"Yeah. It's nice to take it easy, you doin' alright after the whole thing with Stain?"

"I'll be fine." Izuku looked at Mina, who looked like she had just either fallen asleep or was in complete bliss, humming lightly. "Guess you weren't kidding when you said she was going to stick by me for the rest of the day, huh?"

"...no… he wasn'..." She murmured in a low tone, not really paying much attention, probably barely still awake.

They all sat there. It was nice. The world was at almost a standstill for them. But they still had to head home one way or another, so after a few minutes, Izuku and Eijirou got up, the former almost dragging Mina.

"C'mon Mina… I gotta go."

"Fine…" She stated slowly, yawning then stretching, "Man, your arm makes for a good pillow. I'm gonna use it more often!"

"Please don't… I can't feel it any more."

As he said this, Eijirou put his elbow on his shoulder, while Mina took his hand, "Well, either way, I can't really stress it enough, um… I'm just glad you're okay!"

"Same here man. Take care Midoriya!"

Izuku blushed, but smiled, "You too!" And with that, the three parted ways once more. Happy, relaxed. He had finally figured out what he felt for Mina and Eijirou, but wasn't sure if he should confront it or not. Either way, it was definitely there.

And he didn't mind.


End file.
